Cac 40: Who are the biggest shareholders of the CAC 40?

(News Bulletin 247) – A Euronext study published on Tuesday identified the largest shareholders of the Parisian index. Family groups, including the Arnault family, come first ahead of BlackRock, the French state and… the Norwegian state.

It is an arduous task: to manage to identify all the shareholders of the CAC 40, the main index of the Paris Stock Exchange. Euronext, the operator of the Parisian place, is also not achieved 100%. In a study published on Tuesday, the group explains that it has identified approximately 61% of CAC 40 shareholders. One of the difficulties is that investors are only required to declare their holdings to the Autorité des marchés financiers from the threshold 5% of the capital or voting rights.

However, on this basis

relatively large, Euronext has drawn up the typology of the holders of the largest Paris Stock Exchange index for the year 2021.

It shows that family groups dominate, with a total percentage of holdings of CAC 40 groups of 21.5% (as a percentage of the total capitalization of the index). They are followed by asset managers with 20.7%, individual shareholders with 4.6%, States and sovereign wealth funds with 4.2%, then industrial investors (to simplify non-financial companies) with 2.7%. .

Jump in luxury prices and change in composition

The weight of family shareholders can be explained by the predominance of luxury players in the capitalization of the CAC 40.

Moreover, the largest shareholder of the CAC 40 is none other than the Arnault family with 7.4% of the index. Recall that the family directly and indirectly owns 47.35% of LVMH, the largest capitalization of the CAC 40 (just over 410 billion euros at present) which represents approximately one sixth of the total weight of the index. , around 2,350 billion euros in 2021.

The Hermès family (4.6%), which owns 66.6% of the famous saddler of the same name, the Bettencourt-Meyers family (3.3%), which owns 33.3% of L’Oréal, the Pinault family ( 1.6%), whose Artémis holding company owns 41.7% of Kering, and the Dassault family (1.2%) are also part of the top 10.

The Dassault family, through its holding company GIMD (Marcel Dassault industrial group) owns 40.2% of the shares of the software publisher Dassault Systèmes and holds 62.2% of the aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation, which itself owns 24.6 % of Thales.

In the space of five years, that is to say since 2016, the weight of family shareholders has increased significantly, rising from 10% to, therefore, 21.5%. This can be explained by the rise of luxury: LVMH shares increased approximately fourfold between the end of 2016 and the end of 2021. The inclusion of Dassault Systèmes (in 2018) and Hermès (in 2020) in the index also play. As well as that of Eurofins, the last to arrive in the CAC in 2021 and 33% owned by the family of founder Gilles Martin, and the arrival of Stellantis in place of PSA.

The group resulting from the merger between the French manufacturer and Fiat Chrysler indirectly allowed the Agnelli family, via its holding company Exor which owns 14.35% of Stellantis, to enter the circle of family shareholders of the CAC 40.

BlackRock and Norway

Apart from family concerts, the largest shareholder of the CAC 40 is none other than the largest asset manager in the world, namely BlackRock with 2.1%. The French state, which is notably present in Thales, Orange, Engie, Airbus, Safran and Renault, owns 1.9% of the total. The other major state shareholder in the CAC 40 is none other than Norway, via its sovereign fund, the largest in the world, which owns 1.4% of the total index.

It should be noted that for the SBF 120, an index which includes 80 other groups in addition to the 40 of the CAC 40, the typology is very similar. Family concerts own 20.5% of the total, asset managers 20%, states and sovereign wealth funds 5.3% and individual investors 4%.

Dassault family: 1.2%