Italian optician giant Luxottica Group is set to offer 140 million yuan (17.5 million U.S. dollars) to acquire Shanghai Xiandai Optical, Shanghai Securities News reported on Tuesday.

This follows its 169-mln-yuan acquisition of Beijing Xueliang Optical, proving that Luxottica is pressing on with its expansion into China's optical market, the newspaper quoted insiders as saying.

If successful, Luxottica would compete in Shanghai's optical market with the European optician giant HAL Investment (Asian) BV, who has acquired a 78 percent share in vintage Shanghai-name brand Hongxing Optical with 214 million yuan, the newspaper said.

Staff of Shanghai Xiandai Optical confirmed that the two sides are in discussions over the acquisition, but refused to reveal details.

Chairman of Luxottica, Leonardo Del Vecchio said that the acquisition would enable the company to access Shanghai's mid and top-grade optical market since Shanghai Xiandai Optical owns 28 top-grade optical stores at present, which are mainly located in the downtown area of Shanghai.

After the acquision, Luxottica will have 290 outlets in China, including 75 in Beijing, 54 in Hong Kong and 133 in southern Guangdong Province.

Statistics show that the output value of China's optical industry in 2005 reaches 18 billion yuan and the optical export rises by 52.66 percent over that of 2004 to about 3.4 billion yuan.

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