February is the month when companies announce their financial results. Value sharing, a campaign promise of candidate Emmanuel Macron in 2022, is back in the spotlight. “When dividends paid are 20% higher than those paid on average over the last five years, then there must be a super participation paid to employees”, announced Pascal Canfin MEP. 20% growth in shareholder return, we are there. The question will be to choose the basis of calculation: do we or do we not include the record share buybacks carried out in 2022? Outside France, they are part of the calculation of the sums due to shareholders; in France, it is not as clear-cut, and the bar will therefore not necessarily be crossed. This is a somewhat technical point that is absent from the media sphere, but which could well change the situation. If the basis of calculation remains the dividend, the “superparticipation” will remain at the discretion of the companies and the debate initiated six months ago will not have changed anything in the mandatory rules. On the other hand, it will have imposed in the social dialogue the subject of value sharing, to which French companies respond mainly through employee shareholding.

Profits this year are at an all-time high, a sign of the good health of our economy.  This was expected for the oil, gas and coal sectors; since September, they have been targeted by Europe as “super profits” and affected by the European tax, the “temporary solidarity contribution”. Totalénergies is expected to contribute 2 billion euros. This was also expected for the arms sector, which is not affected by this tax. Dassault, Safran and Airbus are growing by nearly 25%, driven by public orders. Thales has not yet published its figures.

The excellent health of the other sectors, which could have been slowed down by the Ukrainian crisis, was less expected. Here, it is operational excellence that explains the proudly announced successes. Sales are in double figures, 15% on average for the CAC 40. Renault is out of the woods, LVMH, Hermès and Kering have never sold so well, Legrand, Schneider Electric and Vinci are in great shape.

Margins are climbing even faster, despite cost inflation. The reorganisations initiated in 2020 are now in full swing; Sanofi is pleased to have saved 2.5 billion euros, Carrefour 800 million euros. Hermès and Michelin prefer to explain how they have increased their prices, with an upmarket offer and job creation. Liquidity, everywhere, is rising in abundance. They are financing an unprecedented rate of external growth – 31 acquisitions in 2022 for Vinci. Companies are also taking advantage of this to repay their debts, making themselves lighter and more manoeuvrable in the event of a new crisis. Finally, these cash flows are going back to the shareholders.

This is where the debate initiated by Renaissance comes in. Dividends are increasing, but they are not increasing by more than 20%. At the same time, share buyback campaigns are reaching unprecedented levels: BNP Paribas announces 5 billion euros, Totalénergies 2 billion, Société Générale 440 million. Will MEPs include this in their calculations? The French tradition is to communicate separately on dividends and share buybacks. And for the moment, neither the MPs, nor the government, nor the unions have raised this technical point.

However, outside of France, companies present the total figure of the “return to the shareholder”: in Germany Mercedes poses as a basis for discussion the figure of 4 billion euros including dividends and share buybacks.

The French champions expect to keep the initiative of sharing value with their own employees, without the law imposing any “superparticipation”. They insist with pedagogy on their already numerous initiatives. Performance indicators on human capital management are present in almost all presentations of results this spring, a first: hours of training, reduction of absenteeism, gender diversity, support for teleworking. These indicators condition, for 5%, the bonuses of the managers – which have not yet been made public. LVMH details its local action, direct and indirect job creation in France; one job created by LVMH generates four on French soil. Totalénergies uses “value sharing” as the title of its annual results press release, highlighting salary increases, bonuses, profit-sharing and participation. Française des Jeux insists on the already high figure for profit-sharing and incentive schemes: 24% of the wage bill. Employee shareholding is also a very powerful lever: France is the country in Europe with the most employee shareholders. Bouygues is 17% owned by its employees, and many CAC 40 groups have employees as their main shareholders: Veolia, Vinci, Safran, Axa, BNP Paribas, Totalénergies, and Société Générale.