Exor (company)

"EXOR" redirects here. For other uses, see Exor (disambiguation).

Exor N.V.

Formerly	Istituto Finanziario Industriale
Company type	Public (N.V.)
Traded as	Euronext: ΕΝ
ISIN	NL0012059018
Industry	Holding company
Founded	27 July 1927 (1927-07-27)
Founder	Giovanni Agnelli
Headquarters	Amsterdam , Netherlands
Key people	Nitin Nohria (chairman) John Elkann (CEO)
Products	Diversified investments, automotive, healthcare, tech, media, heavy equipment, sports,
Revenue	€44.742 billion (2022)
Net income	€2.898 billion (2023)
Total assets	€94.779 billion (2023)
Total equity	€33.132 billion (2023)
Owner	Agnelli family (through Giovanni Agnelli B.V.) (52.01%)
Number of employees	c. 83,773 (2023)
Website	Exor.com

Exor N.V. is the listed holding company of the Italian Agnelli family.

It is incorporated in the Netherlands, listed on Euronext Amsterdam, and controlled through the privately held company Giovanni Agnelli B.V. (owned by members of the extended Agnelli family).

It has a history of investments running over a century, originating from senator Giovanni Agnelli, the founder of FIAT. Its holding include auto and truck manufacturers Stellantis, Ferrari, and Iveco, agricultural and construction firm CNH Industrial, health technology company Philips, the association football club Juventus, the international newspaper The Economist, and the Italian media company GEDI Gruppo Editoriale. In May 2023, Exor launched its investment management company Lingotto.

History

Founding and growth (1927–2007)

Giovanni Agnelli, Exor founder

The company was founded in Turin on 27 July 1927 under the name of Istituto Finanziario Industriale (IFI) by the then senator Giovanni Agnelli, with the aim of reuniting under a single company all the shareholdings he had acquired, mainly in industrial sectors, including his stake as the largest shareholder in FIAT. When he passed away in 1945, he left his shareholding to his descendants, giving the largest share (35%) to his oldest grandson, Gianni Agnelli.

In 1957, IFI acquired control of Istituto Commerciale Laniero Italiano (ICLI), which conducted activities in the financial field, particularly in the textile and wool sector. In 1963, it extended its operations to the banking system and changed its name to Istituto Bancario Italiano Laniero. Three years later, having spun off the banking business to Banca Subalpina, the company became IFIL, playing a parallel role to that of IFI and conducting similar investment management activities, under the management of the Agnelli family.

Over the following decades, while remaining the largest shareholder in FIAT, IFI gained holdings in numerous firms, including Buzzi Unicem, Rockefeller Center, Cinzano, Club Med, and 3M.

IFI listed preference shares (with no voting rights) on the Borsa Italiana in 1968. In 1984, Gianni Agnelli created Giovanni Agnelli S.r.l., a holding company to consolidate the family ownership in IFI and prevent outsiders from acquiring voting shares. In 1987, with more family members joining the holding company (then renamed Giovanni Agnelli e C. S.a.p.az.), its control amounted to over 70% of IFI ordinary shares. By 2000, it had acquired 100% of the ordinary shares, with only non-voting shares left on the market.

In 2003, the company was restructured, under the leadership of Umberto Agnelli, its chairman. All shares in operational subsidiaries, including FIAT, were transferred to IFIL, which was then renamed IFIL Investments. IFI remained the parent holding company, through its ownership of 62.03% of IFIL ordinary shares and a stake in the Exor Group (a Luxembourg investment company that had been acquired in 1991).

In April 2007 John Elkann, who had been nominated as his successor and largest shareholder by Gianni Agnelli, assumed the chairmanship of IFI.

Restructuring as Exor and early investments (2008–2015)

On 1 March 2009, with the aim of simplifying the capital structure, IFIL Investments merged with and into IFI to create Exor S.p.A., the new listed holding company of the Agnelli group. John Elkann was named Chairman and Carlo Sant’Albano was appointed CEO. All classes of shares (savings shares, preference shares and ordinary shares) were listed on Borsa Italiana. As a result of the merger, Giovanni Agnelli e C. S.a.p.az. held 59.2% of the ordinary shares of Exor, exercising control in all ordinary matters. At the time of the merger, Exor's net asset value (NAV) per share was €12.95.

On 3 January 2011, Fiat executed a spin-off of its industrial vehicles division: as a result, Exor became the largest shareholder in the new Fiat Industrial, listed on Borsa Italiana. On 11 February 2011, John Elkann assumed the post of CEO, while retaining his role as chairman of the board.

Major transactions in 2015 included purchasing stock in The Economist Group, as well as PartnerRe, and selling its stake Cushman & Wakefield. On 12 August 2015, it was announced Exor would purchase three-fifths of The Economist Group shares then owned by Pearson PLC, which had held a non-controlling 50% stake since 1928. Exor also had held some shares in the Economist Group prior to the deal. With the deal considered to be the "most important change to The Economist's shareholding structure in almost 90 years", the transaction was completed in August 2015, with about 50% of the Economist Group sold for about $715 million back to the group itself, as well as Exor S.p.A. In doing so, Exor paid 15 times the Economist Group's operating profit. On 2 September 2015, Exor sold Cushman & Wakefield to Chicago-based DTZ for $1.28 billion, generating a capital gain of $722 million.

PartnerRe purchase and sale (2016–2022)

In 2016, Elkann oversaw the company's move of its headquarters from Italy to the Netherlands. That same year, Exor bought PartnerRe with a bid of $140 per share, for a total of $6.9 billion. Originally, it had offered $130 per share and in response Axis Re offered $120.31 per share in paper plus $11.50 in a pre-closing dividend. In March 2020, Exor announced an agreement to sell PartnerRe to French mutual insurer Covéa for $9 billion, plus a $50 million cash dividend upon closing. The sale was not finalised, as Covéa withdrew the offer on 12 May 2020. In August 2020, Exor stated that Covéa would invest €1.5 billion, partly in entities managed by PartnerRe. In July 2022, Exor completed the sale of PartnerRe to Covéa for $9.3 billion (about 8.6 billion euros).

Creation of Stellantis and further investments (2019–2024)

In December 2019, FCA and the PSA Group announced a merger, which was to be completed in twelve to fourteen months. In July 2020, Elkann and the FCA CEO Mike Manley announced that the combined company would be called Stellantis upon completion of the trans-Atlantic merger. The merger was completed on 16 January 2021, with its common shares subsequently trading under the ticker symbol STLA on the Borsa Italiana, Euronext Paris, and the New York Stock Exchange. At the completion date of merger, the combined company became the world's fifth-largest car maker by unit sales. On 14 April 2021, Exor and Peugeot, both significant shareholders in Stellantis, signed a five-year agreement.

Major investments taking place in 2020 included Shang Xia, GEDI Gruppo Editoriale, and Via Transportation. With the stake later increased to 18.3%, Exor acquired 8.87% of Via Transportation, a ride-share company, for $200 million in March 2020. In April 2020, Exor purchased 43.7% of the Italian media group GEDI Gruppo Editoriale for €102.4 million from the CIR Group, the holding company of Carlo De Benedetti's family. In December 2020, Exor invested around €80 million in the Chinese group Shang Xia, then partnering Shang Xia with Hermès International. Exor became a minority shareholder of the French fashion house Christian Louboutin in March 2021, purchasing 24% of the capital for 541 million euros. On 16 June 2021, Exor and World-Wide Investments Company Limited of Hong Kong created the company Nuo spa, with 50% owned by Exor and 50% owned by WWICL. In July 2022, by way of a reserved capital increase, Exor acquired 10% of Institut Mérieux for a value of €833 million.

In February 2022, Exor paid $845 million to Italian tax authorities to settle a dispute related to the move of its legal headquarters to the Netherlands in 2016. To align with its legal structure as a Dutch company, Exor announced in July 2022 that it would move its shares to Amsterdam from Milan to list on Euronext Amsterdam. In April 2022, Exor invested around US$1.1 billion in the healthcare industry, including a 45% stake in Lifenet Healthcare. After a financial scandal hit Juventus in January 2023, the then Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli resigned from the boards of Stellantis and Exor. In April 2023, Elkann remained CEO of Exor, which had around 5 billion euros for acquisitions after selling PartnerRE. It maintained controlling stakes in companies such as Ferrari, CNH Industrial, and Juventus.

On 19 June 2023, Exor announced its partnership with Impala in the joint holding company TagHolding, single shareholder of TagEnergy, a company operating in the renewables and energy storage sectors. On 14 August 2023, Exor acquired 15% of Philips, a multinational company in the health and technology sector, in an operation worth €2.6 billion. On 4 March 2024, Exor invested US$500 million in Clarivate, raising its shares from 6,3% to 10,1%, with a possible further increase up to 17,5%. Former Juventus board of directors member Suzanne Heywood was nominated for election to Clarivate's board of directors at the next Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of the Company on 7 May 2024.

In March 2024, Exor increased its stake in UK-based Clarivate, a global provider of data, analytics, technology and expert services, from 1% to 10%. Negotiations are underway to further increase the stake to 17.5%. As part of the agreement, Exor COO Suzanne Heywood would be a candidate for a seat on Clarivate's board. Clarivate's market capitalisation is $4.8bn, and after the deal Exor became the second largest investor in the company.

Also in 2024, Exor, through NUO (a partnership with Hong Kong family office World-Wide Investment Company Limited), acquired a 30 per cent stake in Osit Impresa SpA, which owns Italian women's fashion brand Subdued. Subdued's net consolidated sales for 2023 were approximately €120 million ($130 million) through 85 directly operated shops in Italy, Spain, the UK, France, Germany and other countries.

Key people

Board of Directors

John Elkann, CEO of Exor

As of 5 June 2023, the board of directors in charge of Exor was as follows:

• Nitin Nohria – chairman
• John Elkann – chief executive officer
• Melissa Bethell – non-executive director
• Marc Bolland – non-executive director
• Tiberto Ruy Brandolini D'Adda – non-executive director
• Laurence Debroux – non-executive director
• Sandra Dembeck – non-executive director
• Axel Dumas – non-executive director
• Ginevra Elkann – non-executive director
• Alessandro Nasi – non-executive director

Partners Council

On 24 May 2018, Exor established the Partners Council, chaired by former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer and Robey Warshaw partner George Osborne. It brings together a group of business leaders that provide additional external experience and counsel into Exor. On 27 September 2021, former Apple chief design officer Jony Ive, joined Exor's Partners Council along with the announcement of a multi-year collaboration with his creative collective LoveFrom.

As of 22 July 2022, in addition to Elkann, Ive, and Osborne, it consisted of CEO and Spotify founder Daniel Ek, Benefits Management Group chief investment officer Michael Larson, 3G Capital co-founder Jorge Paulo Lemann, Alphabet and Google senior vice president and chief financial officer Ruth Porat, OCI Global CEO Nassef Sawiris; Sequoia Capital China founder and managing partner Neil Shen, Tishman Speyer president and CEO Rob Speyer, Alibaba Group executive vice chairman Joseph Tsai, Index Ventures co-founder Mike Volpi, and 7-Main founder, owner, and chairwoman Ruth Wertheimer.

Shareholders

Since inception in March 2009 and 2021, Exor's total shareholders return was +1,460%, or 24%, on a compound annual rate. The family firm Giovanni Agnelli B.V. owned 52.01% of the share capital in 2021.

Company	Share capital
Giovanni Agnelli B.V.	52.0%
Baillie Gifford	4.5%
Harris Associated LP	3.8%
Exor N.V.	5.4%
Vanguard Group	3.3%
Other shareholders	31.0%

Portfolio

Exor's portfolio is principally composed by different companies in which Exor is the largest shareholder. In addition, the holding manages other investments of four different kind, such as Private for unlisted companies, Public for publicly listed companies, Seeds for early and late stage companies, and Alliance for new companies like NUO Spa. As of 17 April 2023, declared shareholdings were as follows:

Company	Sector or industry	Share capital	Voting rights
Juventus F.C.	Football team	63.8%	77.9%
GEDI Gruppo Editoriale	Media	89.6%	89.6%
The Economist Group	Media	34.7%	20.0%
Stellantis	Automotive industry	14.2%	14.2%
CNH Industrial	Agricultural and heavy machinery	26.9%	42.9%
Ferrari	Automotive industry/luxury	22.9%	34.5%
Shang Xia	Fashion	82.3%	82.3%
Welltec	Technology/Energy industry	47.6%	47.6%
Christian Louboutin	Luxury/fashion	24%	24%
Via Transportation	Technology/mobility	18.3%	18.3%
Iveco Group	Automotive industry	27.1%	42.5%
Lifenet Healthcare	Healthcare	44.7%	44.7%
Casavo	Real estate	17.7%	17.9%
NUO	Investment company	50%	50%
Institut Mérieux	Healthcare	3.6%	1.8%
Philips	Health technology	15.0%	15.0%
Clarivate	Health technology	10.1%	10.1%

Besides major holdings in listed companies, Exor held shares in several listed and unlisted companies in 2020, including Faurecia, Ocado Group, Cameco, and Schlumberger.

Venture programs

Exor Ventures

Exor's interest in new 21st-century companies led to the launch of Exor Seeds, later to become Exor Ventures, an early and late stage startup investment business, under the leadership of Noam Ohana since 2017. In September 2021, Exor appointed Diego Piacentini, former Amazon and Apple executive manager, as advisor of Exor and chairman of Exor Ventures.

Investments

Exor Ventures has invested 500 million dollars in 75 companies around the world with a focus on mobility, fintech, and healthcare sectors.

• Alan

• Apparis

• Avant Arte

• Backed

• Banias

• Because

• Bizaway

• Brex

• Caresend

• Cariuma

• CARS24

• Casavo

• Chain Reaction

• Corvent

• Cover

• Cowboy

• Crusoe

• Dice

• Dignifi

• DRL

• Dustphotonic

• Earlens

• Emerge

• EMPG

• EQrx

• Firefly

• FIIT

• Finhabits

• Galena

• Humans

• Inspirna

• Karat

• Kheiron

• Lithic

• Milkshake

• Munbi

• Nebuly

• Newcleo

• Norbert Health

• PhaseV

• Qashier

• Qonto

• Quantum machines

• Radian Aerospace

• Reby

• Reflexion

• Resilience

• Saildrone

• Saltpay

• Smallhold

• Solidus labs

• Tekion

• Tissium

• True Link

• Upways

• Via Transportation

• Viaduct

• VIAVIA

• Wayve

• Xsight

• Zenbill

Vento

In April 2022, Exor launched the Vento venture building program and a seed investing vehicle that, according to Diego Piacentini, in one year backed 52 early-stage startups.

Financial data

Financial data for Exor (2009–2022)

Year	Net revenue	Net income	Assets	Equity	Group's employees
2009	€52.520 billion	€-997 million	€71.804 billion	€4.715 billion	190,651
2010	€58.985 billion	€571 million	€78.707 billion	€4.870 billion	196,723
2011	€84.359 billion	€2.229 billion	€123.030 billion	€4.572 billion	195,404
2012	€110.671 billion	€2.377 billion	€125.762 billion	€4.904 billion	287,343
2013	€113.740 billion	€4.427 billion	€132.680 billion	€8.257 billion	305,963
2014	€122.246 billion	€1.276 billion	€150.509 billion	€9.675 billion	318,562
2015	€136.360 billion	€343 million	€156.895 billion	€9.099 billion	303,247
2016	€140.068 billion	€2.314 billion	€176.528 billion	€10.982 billion	302,562
2017	€138.226 billion	€4.646 billion	€163.775 billion	€10.805 billion	265,017
2018	€143.294 billion	€5.416 billion	€166.275 billion	€12.210 billion	272,170
2019	€143.755 billion	€8.915 billion	€172.610 billion	€15.025 billion	268,979
2020	€119.519 billion	€1.000 billion	€172.945 billion	€13.090 billion	263,284
2021*	€33.617 billion	€3.454 billion	€91.111 billion	€16.759 billion	74,353
2022	€41.884 billion	€4.227 billion	€83.699 billion	€20.627 billion	80,932
2023	€44.742 billion	€2.898 billion	€94.779 billion	€33.132 billion	83,773

*Adjusted following the classification of FCA Group and PartnerRe Group as discontinued operations.

Investor Days event

Starting in 2017, Exor held Investor Days events, which took place at the Agnelli Foundation in Turin. Its first Investor Day event was led by Exor and PartnerRe's leadership teams, and provided financial updates and the latest developments from their respective companies. In 2019, a second event was hosted on the occasion of Exor's 10th anniversary. During the meeting, Elkann, together with the management team, illustrated the company's performances, growth, and key achievements over the past ten years. In late 2021, Exor held its third Investor Day, where the primary focus of its future investments was shared, centered on three main sectors: healthcare, luxury, and technology.

See also

• List of the largest family businesses

External links

• Official website
• Business data for Exor N.V.:
  • Bloomberg
  • Google
  • SEC filings
  • Yahoo!