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Companies: 33 billion euros in share buybacks in 2023
Companies: 33 billion euros in share buybacks in 2023
(France 2)
The level of share buybacks by French companies has never been higher. The State plans to tax these buybacks in order to encourage investments and salary increases.
French companies have never bought back so many of their own shares on the stock market, to the tune of 33 billion euros in 2023. Behind these buybacks are record profits. CAC40 companies earned more than 150 billion euros in 2023. They partly reused this money to buy back their shares, notably TotalEnergies for 9 billion euros and BNP Paribas for 5 billion euros. The government is considering creating a tax on share buybacks. A 1% tax could bring in 300 million euros.
“An artificial rise in prices”
The majority want to encourage companies to invest and increase wages. The biggest winners are shareholders, because when a company buys back shares, it removes them from the market. The remaining shareholders own a little more of the company and receive a larger share of the dividends. Their investment increases in value and stock prices rise. “We have an artificial increase in prices which gives the feeling that the company is doing well”explains Philippe Dessertine, director of the Institut de la Haute France.
