SFL Safilo Group SpA

HAL Holding NV's offer to Safilo SpA (SFL.MI) bondholders ending Nov. 18 has been taken up by holders of around 40% of bonds so far, a person familiar with the situation told Dow Jones Newswires Tuesday.

HAL's offer to acquire Safilo is conditional upon HAL buying at least 60% of EUR195 million of high-yield 2013 Safilo bonds by Nov. 18.

HAL was not immediately available for comment. Safilo declined to comment. HAL will announce the results of the offer on Wednesday, said other people familiar with the situation.

If HAL withdraws its offer, Safilo "would again be in a highly leveraged situation and will, in all likelihood, default under its banking facilities by year-end," Safilo said last week.

At the end of September, Safilo's net debt was EUR586.3 million. Its main creditors are Italy's two biggest banks, Intesa Sanpaolo SpA (ISP.MI) and UniCredit SpA (UCG.MI).

Were Safilo forced to seek bankruptcy protection, it would leave the much larger Luxottica SpA (LUX.MI) as the only major player in the high-end eyewear industry. That could give Luxottica huge negotiating power with the luxury goods companies for which it manufactures eyewear under license.

Based in Padua, Italy, Safilo is the world's second-largest maker of eyewear after Luxottica. Safilo manufactures eyewear under license for brands including Gucci, Giorgio Armani, Valentino, Max Mara and Marc Jacobs.

-By Chiara Vasarri and Jennifer Clark, Dow Jones Newswires; 39 02 58 21 9904; djitaly@dowjones.com

(With additional reporting by Sabrina Cohen.)

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