Leonardo Maria del Vecchio attends the amfAR Venezia 2023 Gala presented by Mastercard and Red Sea International Film Festival on September 3, 2023 in Venice, Italy.
Kristy Sparow | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide for wealthy investors and consumers. Register to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
Wall Street advisors have been very busy in December – from Discovery of Warner Bros. have a bidding war Trump’s media $6 billion merger with nuclear fusion company. However, the ultra-wealthy families’ private investment firms were in no rush to strike deals before the end of the year.
In December, family offices made 35 direct investments in companies, down about 62% on a year-over-year basis, according to data provided exclusively to CNBC by private wealth platform Fintrx. The results cap a lackluster year for family office deals, as firms scaled back their direct bets in light of pricing uncertainty and geopolitical conflict.
Despite this, millennial and Gen X heirs continue to make their mark through their family offices.
Motier Ventures, one of the most active family offices according to Fintrx data, was founded by Guillaume Houzé, 44, the fifth generation heir to the French department store chain Galeries Lafayette. The French company, known for its technology-heavy portfolio, joined a €7.2 million ($8.5 million) funding round for blood testing startup Lucis in December.
New generation heirs frequently invest outside of the sectors that created their family fortune. Last month, billionaire eyewear heir Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio acquired 30% of Italian right-wing media outlet Il Giornale through his family office’s new media division, LMDV Capital. Del Vecchio, whose late father founded Luxottica, said in an interview with the Italian press that he did not expect big returns and was investing out of a sense of civic responsibility.
“My desire is to build an Italian information center, free from the colors of politics. No left or right, for the future of our children and of Italy,” the 30-year-old told L’Economia, according to a CNBC translation. “Publishing needs new strength, also to reestablish the connection with young people who are looking for information but in the wrong places. I would like these young people to start turning the pages of printed newspapers and magazines again and getting their hands dirty with ink.”
High-net-worth families have traditionally used philanthropy as a way to bring in the next generation, and it’s still a popular route. However, families are increasingly using direct investment – often focused on sustainability – to engage heirs, according to Scott Saslow, consultant and family office director.
“These families have found interesting ways to engage the next generation by saying, ‘Hey, you know, it’s not about having a nice house or driving a nice car. It’s about being able to do something pretty impactful in the world with this capital from this special place,'” he said.
According to UBS’s latest family office survey, just under a third of family offices said they expected the next generation of family members to be involved in direct investments, and 39% said they expected the next generation to help manage investments.
— CNBC’s Gaelle Legrand contributed to this report.