When families are at the head of listed companies, the Bourse them the soft eyes. Last February, Euronext has launched nyse Euronext Family Business, an index actions devoted to the family businesses of all sizes that tracks the stock market performance of 90 european equities that meet this criterion. There are large values of the CAC 40 (Pernod Ricard or L’oréal) as well as small companies, like the construction company AST Group, whose market capitalisation is now just over 100 million euros, or food group Tipiak, smaller still.
For other actors in the finance, the commitment to family businesses is much older : in Meeschaert, was celebrated this week the 15th anniversary of the fund MAM Family Businesses. But what exactly is meant by this concept ? “There is necessarily a subjective aspect,” explains Sébastien Korchia, which manages the fund since its inception. For a company in our investment universe, it is not necessary that the family is active in the operational management or to have a minimum threshold of detention, but it must have the power to appoint or remove the officers. It is also necessary that the company concerned is a major part of the family heritage. “
What difference does it make ? If a company is controlled by a private equity fund, for example, it will manage its assets with a goal in mind : to make the money to the investors who have entrusted him with, preferably with a tidy capital gain, at a horizon of five to ten years. It is relatively to the scale of the life of a company and may involve strategies that are too focused on the short-term, sometimes more risky.
“Prudent management ”
Conversely, a company run as a family heritage that we will pass on to the next generation is more naturally focused on a strategy of long…
