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French companies benefiting from state aid can't buy back shares

uk.reuters.com

11–20 of 220 posts

Re: French companies benefiting from state aid can't buy back shares

#11
post #5

I'm not from France, but is it controversial at all? If company wants state support, money needs to stay at the company, that's what it is about, right? Do companies in France could abuse this rule in other way?

It's only controversial with short-term investors and executives who care more about using free money for some quick profit than about saving jobs.

Re: French companies benefiting from state aid can't buy back shares

#12
post #7

Prediction: that won't be a precondition in the USA, and if it was, most companies would decline the aid. You see, buybacks are "that one weird trick" where you can steal from the market, by inflating the EPS and hence your employee stock options, and not go to jail.

To play devil's advocate here, how is that any different from increasing your dividends?

You pay taxes on dividends.

Re: French companies benefiting from state aid can't buy back shares

#14
Perhaps a better approach would be to require these companies to maintain capital ratios like we do for banks. They could be forced to raise more equity if their debt becomes too large. After all the point should be to prevent them from needing future bailouts.

I mean there are other ways to extract money from a company than paying dividends or doing share buy backs.

Are they also going to cap salaries for employees? Are they also going to stop companies paying out large fees to related companies? What about investing in expensive but highly speculative projects?

Re: French companies benefiting from state aid can't buy back shares

#16
post #5

I'm not from France, but is it controversial at all? If company wants state support, money needs to stay at the company, that's what it is about, right? Do companies in France could abuse this rule in other way?

We have a long history of companies abusing the government subsidies in France. So when the covid-specific aids were announced 2 weeks ago, there was a big concern that some companies would abuse them.

So yes, this announcement was really expected

Re: French companies benefiting from state aid can't buy back shares

#17

Prediction: that won't be a precondition in the USA, and if it was, most companies would decline the aid. You see, buybacks are "that one weird trick" where you can steal from the market, by inflating the EPS and hence your employee stock options, and not go to jail.

I agree with the first sentence but not the second; buybacks aren't "stealing from the market", they're returning money to the market but "stealing" from the revenue service. The tax treatment of dividends is less favourable.

Executive total compensation is a wider problem, but shareholders seems generally satisfied with letting boards have almost as much of the company money as they want. Only people who really take it too far like Carlos Ghosn get punished.

Re: French companies benefiting from state aid can't buy back shares

#18

Prediction: that won't be a precondition in the USA, and if it was, most companies would decline the aid. You see, buybacks are "that one weird trick" where you can steal from the market, by inflating the EPS and hence your employee stock options, and not go to jail.

It's not "stealing" from the market. All it does is increase the value of each share in proportion.

Re: French companies benefiting from state aid can't buy back shares

#19
post #15
post #13

That's a false statement, Le Maire said that he ask shareholders not to. Companies and shareholders can do what the hell they want.

Right now, it's your word against Reuter's. Do you have a source?

In French : https://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2020/03/28/le-gouver...

"Enfin, les employeurs bénéficiant du dispositif de chômage partiel, lui aussi financé sur crédits publics, sont appelés à « la plus grande modération » en matière de dividendes."

Re: French companies benefiting from state aid can't buy back shares

#20

Perhaps a better approach would be to require these companies to maintain capital ratios like we do for banks. They could be forced to raise more equity if their debt becomes too large. After all the point should be to prevent them from needing future bailouts. I mean there are other ways to extract money from a company than paying dividends or doing share buy backs. Are they also going to cap salaries for employees?…

Why aren't we letting them fail instead of allowing these idiots to stay in business? Say American Airlines went bust. It's debtors would get its planes and other company assets, who would then in turn sell them to other airlines. A new airline might form to take its place, which would probably be a little more prudent than the last one.
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