Latest Luxottica CEO departure brings investor fears into focus

MILAN (Reuters) - The abrupt departure of Luxottica's (LUX.MI) third chief executive in 17 months raised concerns about strategy and the ability of the group's 80-year-old founder to steer the glasses company in a more challenging market.

Leading shareholder Leonardo Del Vecchio, who also acts as Luxottica's chairman, will take on executive powers, tightening his grip on the company he founded in 1961.

He will inherit the responsibility for markets from Adil Mehboob-Khan, who had joined as co-CEO from Procter & Gamble only a year ago to smooth over a previous management crisis.

Massimo Vian, who had been joint CEO in charge of products and operations, will become the sole chief executive after Mehboob-Khan's departure which was announced late on Friday.

Shares in Luxottica fell 8.5 percent on Monday following changes which JP Morgan analysts said would lead to "increasing uncertainty and stock volatility in the short term."

Del Vecchio is well regarded and credited with turning Luxottica into a global player by buying coveted brands such as Ray Ban sunglasses. He owns 66.5 percent of Luxottica, the world's top spectacles maker, with revenues of 9 billion euros ($9.76 billion).

But the recurrent management changes are raising questions about his succession plans and strategy, analysts said.

The company has been dogged by concerns over management stability over the past year and a half following the departure of long-standing CEO Andrea Guerra following a rift with Del Vecchio. His successor, Enrico Cavatorta left after only six weeks into the job, also due to differences with Del Vecchio.

Del Vecchio said in an interview with Corriere della Sera on Saturday he would remain at the helm of Luxottica until at least 2017 and had a plan to "reorganise and simplify" the commercial, marketing and markets divisions.

He added that he had already started to look for a successor inside the company and that he would not leave "such a big company" in the hands of one of his six children.

Its shares had nonetheless risen 27 percent since the start of 2015 thanks to the boost from a strong dollar in its biggest North America market.

The Italian billionaire is expected to push for changes at the group.

He told Corriere he wanted to speed up decision making, complete the integration of the Oakley brand and also catch up on the development of e-commerce, where he said much smaller rivals are making a lot more money than Luxottica.

($1 = 0.9217 euros)

(Reporting by Agnieszka Flak; Editing by Keith Weir)