Capital gains on these free shares are imposed at a rate of 43

The head of more than 25 billion of assets under management, the President of the Board of Directors of AXA Private Equity had raised this summer an outcry among the funds by proposing to establish a minimum threshold, to 5, for the redistribution of capital gains of the LBO to all employees. It considers that the engagement of personnel for the success of the operations will become a discriminating factor in the success of the Fund.

Social issues are sufficiently part of the concerns of the investment fund

This obviously depends on management companies, but I think that the way in which they will address these issues will have an impact on their durability, especially in an increasingly uncertain as today. The most successful companies are often those that have established mechanisms of engagement and participation for their employees. In the period that opens, they will be able to rely less on their external environment, and will have to rely on the quality of their management and their staff teams.

The LBO reserve only a very small share of their capital gains capital employees. How can it evolve

The motivation of the employees is a crucial element for any business, whether in LBO or not. But the investment capital on the part of employees meet two major challenges. The first is that because of the pyramid of remuneration, taxation and payroll, their investment capacity is limited, and that it must in any event remain risk of this type of operation. Second, the tools available, such as mutual funds business investment (CIPF), are often too heavy to be implemented by small SMEs.

Should alleviate the legal obligations

Do me not desirable insofar as the collective savings should be regulated and subject to controls. There are other tools such as free action plans which, despite the obligation of a minimum four years detention, can be reconciled with LBO. Capital gains on these free shares are imposed at a rate of 43.5.

The amount of capital gains for the management of Converteam (EUR 900 million) he shocked you

Not because nobody could imagine that the value of Converteam more that would increase tenfold in three years. It should be noted that the behaviour of the CEO, Pierre Bastid, was exemplary. In addition to that with his team he reinvested a portion of his earnings, he paid employees to 40-45 million euros of premiums and offered a free action for each share purchased by employees, within the limit of 5 of the capital.

Your proposal, made last June, for a redistribution of 5 of capital gains for employees had raised an outcry in most of the professionals of the "private equity". Is it still relevant

With the financial crisis, it would be inappropriate to legislate on this point, while it is known yet how the LBO, whose facilities are very strained, will behave in this new environment. The important thing is that the redistribution of capital gains is now recognized as a company and that it is subject to a common diagnosis by all the actors, be it the Afic, the Medef, or the Government. Do not forget that the issue is, through greater sharing of appreciation and engagement, responding in part to the problem of pensions, and thus make more sustainable our social system.

What will be the impact of the financial crisis on the investment

The main subject for the economy as a whole, and not only capital investment, is now the debt. The new aversion of economic actors for what looks like to leverage will compel recapitalisations at broken prices. Operators who own capital in reserve will be able to participate in this General unwinding of debt stocks taking advantage of a deflation of valuations. This is true of the LBO as all companies which have funded their external growth by debt...

Certain investment funds will therefore disappear body and property...

There is a concentration of the actors necessarily indeed, but the non-coté will not for all decline. "private equity" has existed for twenty years in France and crossed already several crises. When my team raised its first Fund at the end of the 1980s, at the time in the GAN, our performance was already 20 while the economy was coming out of a stock market crash. With it, indirectly, we could buy Sidel, which allowed us to multiply our initial by 20. In 1994, when we returned with Walter Bulter BDDP in crisis, we have tripled our investment in three years. Our job is to accompany the development of enterprises in own funds, not raise mountains of debt!

Is there a risk of failure of the LBO

Could not avoid the risk that there are within two years to come. But a failure from a montage of debt pushed to the extreme does not mean the bankruptcy of the company. From the time when its bases are healthy, many actors with own funds will be ready to recapitalize the.