Bruno Le Maire called on Tuesday large groups to "moderation" in the "payment of dividends" to shareholders, while an economic crisis threatens to add to that health, due to the epidemic of the new coronavirus. For the Minister of the Economy, but also the Minister of Labor Muriel Pénicaud, it is necessary to keep this money to get through the crisis and help the employees. But it is a message received variously by the interested parties contacted by Europe 1.
Different situations depending on the company
As soon as the Minister asked, some companies played the right students: JCDecaux, Airbus or Auchan Holdings ... But behind these announcements, the message went bad in some companies. According to our information, Afep, which brings together the largest French companies, has just written to the minister to say: "We do not want a law". If some companies can do this it's perfect, but in some companies, there are also a lot of employee shareholders ...
And precisely for Aldo Sicurani, of the Federation of Individual Investors, we must not forget that it is the shareholders who take all the risks. "The employees have a certain number of safeguards, which allow them to receive their remuneration", he reminds, "while the shareholders, them, undergo the entire risk. When the action drops by 80% , there is nobody who comes to tell them 'we take care of half the drop'! "
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What policy in companies in which the State itself is a shareholder?
According to our information, Bruno Le Maire signed a letter late Thursday evening to all the companies in which the State is a shareholder. He asked them to moderate the dividend side. "We must set an example," we were told Thursday in Bercy. And some companies, which might need state support like Air France or Renault, would be inspired to hear these instructions, it is said in the corridors of the ministry.
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But despite everything, for certain shareholders, it is not normal to cut the dividends in the companies which function well at the moment, such as for example in telephony. "There is no reason why they should pay their dividends. Investors are also a lot of little people! So dividends must be paid: shareholders must be paid, the last one if there are any left. ", says Pierre-Henri Leroy, from the consultancy firm ProXinvest.
But in this period when everyone is tightening their belts, the minister intends to make it a political affair.
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