EFES NEWSLETTER - APRIL 2007

Zukunft Mittelstand - Erfolgsfaktor gesellschaftliches Engagement
Berlin 17.04.07 - Bertelsmann Repräsentanz, Unter den Linden 1 Weitere Informationen

Employee ownership in widest European companies
87% of all widest European groups have employee share ownership and 82,6% have plans to develop it more, while 49% have broad based plans (all employees plans). Employee share ownership is significant in 40,3% (employee owners holding more than 1%). On the other hand, 69,6% use stock options. Our database of employee ownership in European companies is now complete. It gathers the numbers and the detailed history of employee share plans in the 2.000 European widest groups, in 27 European countries. This is 29 millions employees (corresponding to 100-120 millions people, some 25% of the whole European population, if you consider that a family sizes 3-4 persons). The database can be used for benchmarking about countries, branches or a defined list of companies as well. You can ask us here for conditions

The European Employee Ownership TOP 2007
Would your company be partner of the European Employee Ownership TOP 2007? The database will be updated. It will also be expanded to Romania, Bulgaria and probably Turkey. The ranking of the TOP employee ownership companies will be published through a celebration conference at the end of the year, a dedicated website and a publication. Call us for partnership

Strong differences in buildings and engineering
Last month, we underlined the fact that employee ownership shows major differences between European companies of the same sector. For instance, this is how much an employee holds in average in shares in following banks: UBS 87.000 €, Deutsche Bank 61.000 €, Société Générale 38.000 € ... Fortis 5.000 €, ING 1.535 € ... This month, let's see the numbers for buildings and engineering (see column on the right side):

Survey of employee ownership in Australia
Four new research reports give a full survey of employee ownership in Australia, due to the University of Melbourne: An Overview of Existing Data on Employee Share Ownership in Australia, Employee Share Ownership: A Review of the Literature, Employee Share Ownership Plans in Australia: The Corporate Law Framework, Employee Share Ownership Plans in Australia: The Taxation Law Framework. Click here for full information and download reports

Press Review   
Much new information about employee ownership in March 2007, with 2.910 articles in our press review (on which 951 about stock options and 307 about workers' co-operatives). We made a selection of 52 remarkable articles in 11 countries: Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Ireland, India, Malta, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom, USA.
Strong debate in USA: Would largest groups as the Chicago Tribune (21.000 employees, second national newspaper) or Chrysler be turned to employee ownership? (739 articles) "Bidding war for Tribune", "battle for Tribune", "battle of the billionaires" – 3 billionaires presenting offers based on employee ownership. Corey Rosen of the National Employee Ownership Center makes the point.
Rescuing failing enterprises through workers' cooperatives or other employee-owned solutions. Many cases occurring, successful or not, in Canada, France (Samsonite, Pamco Industries, "La solution SCOP", Lip), USA (300 employee-owned firms in Michigan), UK (Burberry).
Strange cases in France: Eiffage (22% employee owned, 50.000 employees) decided to block employees shares, while Air France-KLM (12% employee-owned) discourages employees to sell their shares, offering them a quote protection.
Netherlands: Arcadis (employee-owned, 9.000 employees) sells a subsidiary to Mott MacDonald (UK employee-owned, 9.000 employees).
Malta: General Workers' Union attacks the government who will tax employees share options.
India: Big national debate, much arguments about Minister of Finance's decision to tax stock options.
UK: Cooperatives pay big dividends, while it's commonly held that employee-owned firms are uncompetitive !?

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

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

Holcim  218 €
HeidelbergCement 734 €
Lafarge 3.609 €
CimentsFrançais 63 €
Italcementi   135 €
Italmobiliare  87 €
YIT   5.802 €
Grupo ACS 878 €
ConsCoopConstr. 4.705 €
Acciona 0 €
Hochtief 172 €
BilfingerBerger  1.150 €
Vinci 10.627 €
Bouygues 22.784 €
Colas 1.085 €
Eiffage 23.673 €
Skanska 0 €
G.Ferrovial 38 €
FCC 0 €
SacyrVallehermoso 0 €
Geberit  14.771 €
Bekaert  672 €
Nexans   902 €
Schindler PS  321 €
SaintGobain 5.738 €
Hanson   1.032 €
CRHplc 1.375 €
Veidekke  22.553 €
Arcadis 43.711 €
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 €

Plattform Mitarbeiterbeteiligung Österreich

EFES needs more members. Download EFES membership form

What's new on EFES website?

EFES NEWS distribution: 80.000