Share buyback: State shareholder struggles to make itself heard

"There is still a bit of cynicism at work, when we have large companies that make such exceptional revenues that they end up using this money to buy back their own shares." On March 22, 2023, interviewed on TF1 and France 2, the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, castigated share buybacks, this financial practice which allows companies to remunerate their shareholders , often in addition to the dividends they pay them; In the midst of the protest movement against pension reform, the head of state is seeking to shift the debate back to the sharing of value.

Two years later, Emmanuel Macron's salvo has not really been heard. Certainly, the amounts devoted to share buybacks by CAC 40 companies have fallen by 22.5% in one year, from 33 billion euros in 2023 to 25.5 billion euros in 2024, according to figures from the January Vernimmen financial letter . But if we remove the BNP Paribas buyback program in 2023, for 5 billion euros, the drop is limited to 10%. In 2024, share buybacks have only returned to the amount of 2022 (24 billion euros) and remain more than twice those of 2019 (11 billion euros). In comparison, dividends have increased by 50% in five years, to almost 75 billion euros in 2024.

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