Since the 2007 record EUR 550 million for 44

The capital increase that AXA reserve its employees every year since 1993 concludes today. Since the 2007 record - EUR 550 million for 44.000-l contributors ' enthusiasm slackened. But not to the extent that the group, chaired by Henri de Castries departs from an operation "designed to strengthen the relationship with employees ...". "and which reflects their confidence." AXA, which holds the record for the capital raised by this bias, EUR 1.4 billion in four years, is of course not only to use. Olivia Flahault and Frédéric Genevrier, founders of the society of independent analysis SFV, just devote a study on the subject, believe that the employees hold currently 3.3 of the CAC 40 and that their place there grew by 22 since 2007. More than half of the companies in the index have launched in the period to at least a capital increase reserved for their employees. Of new recruits, Vallourec, Schneider, Capgemini, is there are converted. Most addicts have developed Overdrive, such giants of the BTP Vinci etBouygues. In the latter, the employees even crossed in 2010 a decisive threshold: with 18 of the capital, record of the ACC, they are passed to the brothers Martin and Olivier Bouygues!

All these employees be satisfied so that sharing profits from their employers merit the sharing of the risks of the stock market In fact, under their bold and noble appearance, these plans are in most cases of financial engineering complex, opaque and questionable. It aims not only to take advantage of tax and social benefits granted by Parliament, but above all to reduce or cancel the risk of the investment in shares. Colette Neuville, the Madonna of small carriers, as a word cruel but just those who engage: shareholders in CSD! Since 2005, nearly 90 of the funds by the employees of AXA are derived from a formula "to leverage effect", in which a bank to interfere between the company and its future shareholders. The latter fund that action on 10. The bank guarantees them this contribution and their ready what pay the other nine. It also takes the discount enjoyed by employees and, at the exit, a part of the eventual recovery of securities issued to finance mounting, the conduct and the unwinding of the scheme during the five years legal minimum of the shares. Irony of history, because they could arrange for their own account of such montages of titles to credits that would appear too incestuous, BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole and Société Générale is are required to conventional formulas without lever.

All these operations appear to be far removed from the Gaullist concept of participation to which they are often associated. Some of top management, opportunistic or strategic concerns, become legible. SFV points for example the case of Saint-Gobain, who was more leverage and which, after the arrival of Wendel to its capital, is there is twice higher than usual volumes. Or that of Capgemini, whose employees, absent from the round table to 2008, are suddenly mounted to 3.7: the passage of Atos Origin, the alter ego of computer services, under the control of investment fund could encourage them to form an embryo of hard core.

By contrast, the absence of Carrefour is more visible that Auchan, yet not side, the employee share ownership made an effective motivational tool. Well, the inventor of the hypermarket had mounted in 2000 what remains the largest operation of its kind (almost EUR 700 million), but it was challenged in court by a teigneux shareholder and led five years later on a stock market fiasco. If there is not today, it would be rather as a result of the presence in turn table of shareholders, Colony Capital and group Arnault, not willing to dilute by employees.

This is the issue. The study of SFV is a sliced finding. The employee share ownership prosperous there where the power of the top management outweighs the shareholders stable and identified. It is however marginal or absent in corporations to control family (PPR),