Recently, a number of listed companies have issued employee stock ownership plans. According to statistics, as of April 25, according to the announcement date of the plan, 80 A-share listed companies had issued the employee stock ownership plan during the year.
Pan Helin, CO director and researcher of digital economy and financial innovation research center of International United Business School of Zhejiang University, said in an interview with Securities Daily that when the stock price is relatively low, listed companies turn to employee stock ownership plans. On the one hand, they use buybacks to support the stock price, on the other hand, they also stimulate employees’ work enthusiasm.
In terms of time distribution, 49 listed companies launched ESOP plans in March and April (as of April 25), which is more intensive than 31 in January and February.
Byd Company Limited(002594) 4 April 23 issued the employee stock ownership plan (Draft) for 2022, which shows that the company plans to repurchase shares for the employee stock ownership plan with a capital of 1.8 billion-1.85 billion yuan, the repurchase price is no more than 300 yuan / share, and the total number of participants in the employee stock ownership plan is no more than 12000, including employee representatives, supervisors, senior managers, middle managers and core backbone employees.
on March 11, 2014 3, the ninth phase of employee stock ownership plan (Draft) was issued, with a total capital ceiling of 180 million yuan and no more than 3300 participants in the employee stock ownership plan Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co.Ltd(300760) 1 January 20 issued the employee stock ownership plan (Draft) for 2022, proposing to establish an employee stock ownership plan with 3.0487 million shares repurchased, and the total number of employees participating in the stock ownership plan shall not exceed 2700.
From the perspective of capital sources, most listed companies set up ESOP based on employee compensation and self raised funds. Seven listed companies, including Sunwoda Electronic Co.Ltd(300207) , Digital China Group Co.Ltd(000034) and Digital China Group Co.Ltd(000034) have also increased the channels of “financing from the third party”. The funds of ESOP of Livzon Pharmaceutical Group Inc(000513) , Shenzhen Goodix Technology Co.Ltd(603160) and other companies come from the bonus of stock ownership plan. From the perspective of stock sources, the repurchase of listed companies is the mainstream. More than 50 companies plan to acquire the subject shares of the employee stock ownership plan by means of repurchase, accounting for more than 60%.
Different from the equity incentive only for executives, the beneficiaries of ESOP are undoubtedly more extensive. The potential number of ESOP holders of the above 80 listed companies is as high as 49044, with an average of 613 employees covered by each listed company, of which the latest ESOP of 7 companies, including Byd Company Limited(002594) , Hengli Petrochemical Co.Ltd(600346) , Eve Energy Co.Ltd(300014) , Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co.Ltd(300760) , covers more than 1000 employees.
The unlocking conditions of employee stock ownership plans of many listed companies are linked to performance growth. For example, Byd Company Limited(002594) stipulates in terms of performance unlocking conditions that the year-on-year growth rate of the company’s annual operating revenue in 2022, 2023 and 2024 shall not be less than 30%, 20% and 20% respectively.
Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co.Ltd(300760) stipulates that the unlocking conditions at the company level are: compared with 2021, the growth rate of net profit attributable to the parent company in 2022, 2023 and 2024 shall not be less than 20%, 44% and 73% respectively.
With good business performance and optimistic performance expectations, retaining excellent talents may be one of the reasons for many listed companies to launch employee stock ownership plans. For example, Byd Company Limited(002594) said that the employee stock ownership plan aims to establish and improve the benefit sharing mechanism between workers and owners, realize the consistency of the interests of the company, shareholders and employees, attract and retain excellent management talents and business backbone, improve the cohesion and competitiveness of the company’s employees, and promote the long-term, sustainable and healthy development of the company.
“At present, the whole new energy vehicle industry is entering a period of comprehensive and deepening development. Many new energy vehicle enterprises are spending a lot of money to tap talents in the market.” Jiang Han, senior researcher of Pangu think tank, told the Securities Daily that Byd Company Limited(002594) making great efforts to retain core talents is the key reason for Byd Company Limited(002594) launching the employee stock ownership plan.
