According to Zhī tōng Cáijīng APP, the Agnelli family of Italy increased its shareholding in Royal Philips (PHG.US) to a current value of $4.19 billion, indicating increased confidence in the Dutch medical device manufacturer. According to documents submitted to US regulators on Tuesday night, Exor NV, the Agnelli family's holding company, currently holds 17.51% of Philips' shares. As of May 16th, the company's shareholding ratio was 16.1%, making it the largest shareholder of Philips.

Exor is the holding company of the Agnelli family, which founded Italian automaker Fiat. In 2023, the company began to expand into diversified fields such as medical care, technology, financial services and luxury goods, and bought 15% of Philips' shares. This transaction allows Exor to increase its shareholding in Philips to 20%.

Increasing investment in Philips shows that Exor has more confidence in this Dutch company. In April of this year, Philips settled claims related to defective sleep apnea devices in the United States. In recent years, Philips has been recalling sleep therapy devices because the decomposition of noise-reducing foam inside the devices may cause health issues.

According to documents submitted on Tuesday, Exor bought 19.5 million shares of Philips for about 481 million euros ($514 million). The company spent about 3.3 billion euros in total on its shareholding in Philips.

At the end of last year, Exor CEO John Elkann expressed confidence in Philips' safety-related issues. He said at the time that looking to the future, Exor "needs to ensure that its relationship with Philips progresses smoothly and, of course, there are opportunities for more investment."

It is reported that Exor is also the largest shareholder of Stellantis NV (STLA.US), supercar manufacturer Ferrari, Juventus Football Club and The Economist Group.

Philips' stock price in Amsterdam rose 3.2%, and has accumulated a 20% increase so far this year.