French eye-wear maker EssilorLuxottica, the parent of Ray-Ban, has taken a 5 per cent stake in Japan’s Nikon.

Nikon’s share price surged as much as 10.2 per cent on the back of the confirmation of EssilorLuxottica’s stake made via a regulatory filing. Nikon’s share price is up nearly 20 per cent since the start of this year.

EssilorLuxottica already operates an eye-wear joint venture with Nikon that was set up in 2000 and distributes the former’s Varilux brand and other corrective lenses in Japan.

It began accumulating Nikon’s shares from as early as August 5 through October 1.

EssilorLuxottica has a long-term partnership, via its Ray-Ban brand, with Meta Platforms

EssilorLuxottica has a long-term partnership, via its Ray-Ban brand, with Meta Platforms

 

The French company has a market capitalisation of around 96 billion euros (A$155.98 billion) and logged sales of 25.3 billion euros (A$41.26 billion) for 2023 – nearly six times Nikon’s revenue for the fiscal year ended March 31.

The company also has a long-term partnership, via its Ray-Ban brand, with Meta Platforms to develop smart wearable products.

Meta is reportedly considering a stake of up to 5 per cent within EssilorLuxottica.

While Nikon’s rival ASML relies on Germany’s Carl Zeiss for lenses, Nikon has its own know-how in the field.

Earlier this year, Nikon said it will invest 100 billion yen (A$1 billion) by 2030 to strengthen its lenses and other offerings.