CAC 40 companies recorded record profits in 2022, a boon for shareholders, who benefit from these increases.
Shareholders will be pampered this year: three out of four CAC 40 groups have already announced an increase in their dividends, and these are not small increases! For example, if you have shares in Hermès, the increase in your dividend will exceed 60% this year. Same this year at Engie: more than 40% increase for Total Energie, or for Vinci; 20% for LVMH etc.
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If the year has been so good for French companies, it is in particular thanks to the energy prices which have soared, and which have enabled Total or Engie to reap billions of euros in profits. It is also because our tricolor flagships increased their activity last year. This is the case in luxury, for LVMH, Hermès, L’Oréal etc. Companies have also improved their margins, such as Stellantis, the former PSA or Michelin.
Finally, these records can be explained because these CAC 40 groups have made many share buybacks. That is to say that since they have cash, they have bought back their own listed securities on the market. This makes it possible to reduce the number of shares in circulation on the market and therefore to increase their yield. VSmade more earnings per share, and it’s bingo for the shareholders!
Benefits also for employees?
It depends on the situations. In these companies, employees are often also shareholders. There is incentive and participation, so these flourishing results will bring them additional purchasing power. At LVMH, for example, the group’s French employees will share 400 million euros in dividends.
And then, with few exceptions, most of the companies that post these records, under the pressure of public opinion, have increased salaries, or at least paid Macron bonuses, tax-free, and without contributions.
But all these billions of euros in profits are controversial and raise the question of runoff and the sharing of value in business. Unions and employers reached an agreement to extend participation schemes to smaller companies, but on the other hand, they rejected the idea of a mandatory employee dividend as Emmanuel Macron wanted. The controversy is likely to be all the stronger as we are in a tense social context. Obviously, inflation remains high, particularly in the food sector, and we are in full mobilization against the pension reform, where efforts are being asked of workers to work longer.
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