EFES NEWSLETTER - NOVEMBER 2007

Employee share ownership in business succession planning
It is known that ESOP – one of the most typical employee ownership scheme in USA, was particularly designed for business succession. In Australia, the Australian Employee Ownership Association (AEOA) has been vigorously promoting the role that employee share ownership can play in business succession planning. To support the development of employee share ownership in the SME sector, the AEOA has set up a special "resources" page to assist business consultants with advising on ESOP-based business successions and the expansion of employee equity in private companies. The articles, case studies and web-links appearing on this page will be useful for informing retiring business owners wanting to transition their business to their employees as part of a succession plan, as well as for those wanting to implement shared ownership of private businesses generally. See this new resources web-page
 
Employee Ownership Blog
Creation of the Employee Ownership Blog in USA. The Employee Ownership Blog is dedicated to fostering an open discussion about employee ownership in the US while keeping readers informed of new developments on the legislative front and linking to relevant articles. Access to the blog 

Press review
Much new information about employee ownership in October 2007, with 1.722 articles in this press review (on which 1.027 involving stock options and 182 about workers' cooperatives). We made a selection of  73 remarkable articles in 12 countries: Australia, Austria, Germany, France, Ireland, India, Israel, Italy, Morocco, UK, USA, South Africa.
Australia: "Executive salaries had become so large they were grotesque" - Australia's most senior Catholic, Cardinal George Pell.
Austria: Vice-Chancellor Molterer pleads for employee share ownership.
France: EADS scandal relaunched violent debates on executive salaries and stock options (500 articles!). Stock options have to be forbidden (socialist proposal). A higher taxation was finally voted on stock options to cover social security expenses. Annual survey on employee savings: It is now more than 100 billions Euro for 11 millions employees. Which role for hedge funds? Safran: Employee shareholders playing a key-role.
Germany: A new study confirms Germany's backwardness regarding employee share ownership. On the other hand, the government's working group held its first meeting and the big coalition will probably finalize a new legislation for the end of this year.
Ireland: Early Christmas for Eircom employee shareholders.
India: The new tax on employee stock options becomes reality after months of suspense. Edelweiss Capital Limited IPO opens; its model of high level of employee ownership inculcates a strong culture of partnership, ownership, commitment, and entrepreneurial spirit. Air India will offer employee stock options to all its 33,000 staff within a few months as it gets ready for an initial public offer. Employee Stock Option (ESOP) scheme is emerging as a great retention tool for the hospitality sector.
UK: Chancellor Alistair Darling will simplify the Capital Gain Tax. However this could mean higher taxation for employee share schemes and for transfers of businesses, in contradiction with the relief created by Gordon Brown himself some years ago as an incentive for enterprise and employee ownership. Large debate. On the other hand "FTSE-100 bosses take home 100 times more than average employees" – questions about the salaries of the top executives (and stock options !) – just like in France or the US.
Israel: National bus company was set up in 1933 as a workers' coop.
Italy: Questions about Banca Popolare di Milano - key employee shareholders of BPM, effectively controlling the bank with just 2 pct of capital.
South Africa: Sasol prepares the single largest BEE deal in the South African economy. Sasol's executive director declared that "the inclusion of white employees at lower levels is a common industry trend in a number of  large BEE transactions announced recently, and we have engaged all our trade unions in this part of the transaction".
USA: Chicago Tribune bought through an ESOP: Sam Zell tells why. Could the UAW buy General Motors: discussion continues. Much questions about stock options and executives pay: Stock Options spur risky CEO behaviour - Fallacy of stock options - Maybe it's time to restructure executive stock options. On the other had, the Securities and Exchange Commission gives final approval to the new auction method for valuing employee stock options. Finally some interesting examples of employee-owned companies: Eudora Nursing confirms that being employee owned makes the care being provided more personal. The World-Herald is the country's only employee-owned major daily newspaper. Monroe Publishing tells what makes it special to work for a cool company.

The full press review is available on:
              http://www.efesonline.org/PRESS REVIEW/2007/October.htm 

WHAT ABOUT YOU?
This is how much an employee held in 2006, in average, in shares of:

Metro 0 €
KarstadtQuelle  202 €
Stockmann   3.453 €
PinaultPrintemps 1.015 €
Tesco   2.811 €
Morrison   306 €
JohnLewis   32.703 €
Auchan  4.789 €
ModeloContinente   0 €
adidas-Salomon  3.820 €
Thomson   4.479 €
Indesit   214 €
PhilipsElectronics   1.443 €
Electrolux  376 €
Gorenje 2.185 €
Praktiker  0 €
Wolseley  1.784 €
Kingfisher  89 €
Boots Group 290 €
H&M   0 €
Marks&Spencer  6.861 €
Inditex   0 €
Kesko  7.046 €
Next   1.950 €
Delhaize   747 €
Colruyt  46.747 €
Carrefour   1.032 €
Casino  757 €
Rallye  0 €
Ahold   52 €
Sainsbury  284 €
UBS  87.000 €
Total 47.000 €
Novartis 48.000 €
Mondragon 54.000 €
DeutscheBank 61.000 €
SocGen 38.000 €
BNPParibas 30.000 €
CréditAgricole 48.000 €
AXA 27.000 €
Bouygues 23.000 €

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