Shareholder foundations are highly developed in Northern Europe but there are only about thirty in France. But the principle is known. It consists of a manager who transfers his company to a responsible shareholder foundation using dividends to finance actions of public interest.
“ First of all, it is a subject of transmission that will later become philanthropic”, However, explains Virginie Seghers, president of the company Prophil, which supports the development of shareholder foundations in France.
Therefore, Jean-Pascal Archimbaud, manager of the sawmill group of the same name in Deux-Sèvres, chose not to let his children experience the classical transmission that he himself experienced in family tensions. For Jean-Charles Rinn, one of the managers of the Adam wood packaging manufacturer, providing LBOs to employees (leveraged buyoutdebt-financed purchase) at retirement.
