Established in the Bouches-du-Rhône, NGE is a major player in public works. Its originality: 9,000 employees, out of the 16,500 in the group, are shareholders. The founders and managers hold 51% of the company, the employees 21%, the balance of 28% belonging to the French investment fund Montefiore, which entered the capital in 2021. A development model defended by Antoine Metzger, its president, at the time when the company shows a growth of 11% over the last year and exceeds 3 billion euros in turnover. Explanations.
L’Express: How did the desire to open up NGE’s capital to employees arise?
Antoine Metzger: Employee share ownership meets three objectives which we believe to be absolutely essential: independence, the sustainability of the company and the sharing of value. With employee share ownership, we create a sincere alignment of the interests of the shareholder and the employees. I find it quite great when I say hello to someone in the morning that there is a 3 out of 4 chance that they are an NGE shareholder. As a leader, I am delighted that this subject is now driving employers’ organizations, employee unions and even the government.
Your group generates 12% of its turnover abroad. Can your employees working outside France also be shareholders of the group?
We are present in 17 countries. Expatriate workers can obviously be shareholders. For the rest, as soon as an establishment reaches a critical size and local legislation allows it, as in Mexico, Morocco or Côte d’Ivoire, employees can become shareholders. However, on a technical level, the device is specific to each country because we have to apply local legislation and taxation.
Technically, how can employees invest?
In 2015, we decided to create a mutual company investment fund (FCPE), which was, at the time, relatively new for an unlisted company. It’s an extraordinarily effective tool, attractive for tax purposes, and so powerful that I don’t understand why more companies don’t use it to implement employee share ownership. Each year, we offer employees the option of subscribing to it. In 2022, 45% of workers have become shareholders, 71% of middle management, and 87% of executives. Everyone can invest, if they wish and only if they wish, a minimum of 50 euros and up to 25% of their remuneration, which corresponds to the ceiling imposed by French law.
How has the share price changed?
Since NGE is not listed on the stock exchange, the firm EY is responsible for assessing the value of the FCPE shares. It has increased by 16% over one year and it has been multiplied by 3.75 since 2015. This increase obviously includes the dividends paid by NGE to its shareholders and it is in this that we can really speak of sharing of value with employees.
How much do employees invest on average?
Between 1,300 and 1,500 euros per subscription campaign. We conduct it every year during the month of May. Employees can, of course, invest their personal savings but, very often, they subscribe by paying all or part of their profit-sharing and participation. At NGE, they therefore have the opportunity to invest in the company they know best: their own. In 2022, 1,200 more employees than in 2021 subscribed to the capital via the FCPE.
Should the share held by employees in the capital be increased?
This share increased over time because there was demand for shares but no sale possible. Today, however, shares are sold because of retirements, departures from the company, or the simple desire to reap the fruits of one’s investment. The question is more to find a balance, which we manage to maintain, between supply and demand, than to increase the share held by employees.
Employee share ownership is often presented as a loyalty-building tool. Is that the case ?
We stay in a company because we feel good there. Shareholder or not.
And the idea of a “employee dividend” pushed by the government?
I don’t have an informed opinion on the subject. What I do know, however, is that when employees are shareholders, they receive a dividend. And it is logical as well.