Coronavirus: France's dividends under surveillance

Text by: RFI Follow

Can shareholders of large groups get through the coronavirus crisis without making the least sacrifice of their income? The pressure is mounting in any case so that the dividends are not paid. In France, the executive plans to ask the groups where it is a shareholder to renounce the dividends of 2019. Several large groups have played the game. Others are dragging their feet.

Publicity

In France, the CFDT union put the question back on the carpet by a letter asking companies to give up dividends in solidarity with the many employees who have to adapt in sometimes difficult conditions. The government is considering a bill to prevent companies from combining tax support measures and dividend payments. Some groups have already given up to preserve their cash, such as Airbus, JCDecaux, Autogrill, the Auchan group and since Friday, March 27, the engine manufacturer Safran.

In this latter group, the French State is a shareholder. As at ADP, Air France-KLM, EDF, Engie, Renault and others. The government intends to ask them all to suspend the payment, even if the state should then renounce itself to 2 billion euros this year. At the energy company Engie, President Jean-Pierre Clamadieu requires a little time to make the wisest decision.

This resistance is also visible in banks. BNP Paribas has indicated that it is maintaining the scheduled payments. However, if a sector is in the crosshairs, it is indeed the banks which benefit from the broadest support at the moment, especially from Brussels. The banking federation of the European Union, the sector's lobby, has even called on its members to suspend the payment of dividends. The ECB calls on banks in the euro area not to distribute dividends until at least October.

Our selection on SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus

• Listen to Infos coronavirus , our daily column on the Covid-19

• Practical questions:
→ What is the lifespan of the virus?
→ Who are the vulnerable people ?
→ What should you do when you think you are contaminated ?
→ Quarantine, what are we talking about ?
→ What treatments ? The effectiveness of an antimalarial drug in question
→ The advice of a psychiatrist to live well the confinement

Find all our articles, reports, chronicles and programs on the coronavirus by clicking here .

See also our contents on containment .

Newsletter With the Daily Newsletter, find the headlines directly in your mailbox

Follow all international news by downloading the RFI application

• Economy
• France
• Eurozone

On the same subject

Today the economy

Coronavirus: French unions oppose the relaxation of labor law

Coronavirus: Germany adopts 1100 billion euros plan

Today the economy

EU: not yet the sacred union against the coronavirus