Sharing value is at the heart of AXA’s culture

Over 26,000 employees invested in AXA shares at preferred terms, i.e. 22% of eligible employees investing nearly 400 million euros. To spotlight this emblematic AXA’s operation, we had a few words with Helen Browne, Group General Counsel and employee shareholder representative to the AXA Board of Directors re-elected to a 4-year term in 2024.

How would you describe Shareplan and why is employee shareholding so important to AXA?

Employee shareholding enables employees to invest in their company at preferential terms. It is one of the numerous benefits of becoming an AXA employee! This is a win-win proposition for both employees and companies. Giving our employees the opportunity to become shareholders is co-commitment to the Group's development and success.

Initiated in 1993, Shareplan continues to be, year after year, a way for AXA to share the value it creates with its employees.

Today, almost 42,000 employees (circa 30% of all staff) are shareholders in over 40 countries, representing 4.32% of capital and 5.83% of the AXA voting rights. Together, they are one of AXA’s biggest shareholders. The growing participation rate reflects employees’ attachment to AXA and their confidence in the Group’s strategy and vision.

How would you qualify the Shareplan 2024 results?

The excellent results of this 31st edition once again demonstrated our collective commitment to AXA's strategy. Over 26,000 employees participated, that is to say 22% of eligible employees (vs 21% last year) with a global investment of nearly 400 million euros, growing 15% versus last year. This means that employees’ average investment is up slightly, despite sustained inflation.

These results confirm that the two offers meet employees’ expectations and that Shareplan has become a collective not-to-be-missed event.

The Board and I thank all the participants for their continued support. On a personal note, I encourage all employees to ask me about my role on the Board, and to tell me how we can continue to improve Shareplan.

What was the Shareplan offer in 2024?

AXA believes in proposing different offers for different situations and profile: some people are looking for a secure savings product with no capital loss risk, while others are prepared to take some market risks in the long term. A change in share prices mean there is a potential profit but also a potential loss in downwards markets.

The risks that employee shareholders take will more likely be in function of where they are in their careers and lives. That is why we propose two distinct investment formulas:

• the Classic Offer where employees buy shares at a 20% discount to the Reference Price of the AXA share, and receive annual dividends: the value of this investment is linked to the AXA share price;
• the Guarantee Plus Offer where employees’ personal investment is guaranteed and repaid in full at the end, along with a guaranteed minimum return of 5% per year, or (if more favorable) 4 times the Protected Average Increase of the AXA share price multiplied by the number of subscribed units. This means employees do not bear the market risk of share price movements like in the Classic Offer, they benefit from part of any upside.

What was new this year?

Following the survey we carried out in 2023 to which more than 5,000 employee shareholders Group-wide replied we put in place some of the excellent recommendations. Building on their responses, we redesigned our Employee Shareholding website to create a single platform to consolidate all the Shareplan, LTI, elections, Q&A information.

We hope to continue to enhance user experience with new improvements.

This year, we also succeeded in moving the dates of the reservation period back a month to September as employees told me that it is not ideal to subscribe while on holiday in August. We’ve also made the subscription tool more user-friendly. This new platform includes a simulator with multiple sets of parameters (share price, annual dividend assumption, allocation between the two offers…) to help employees compare and determine their choice.

We also made our communication simpler and more succinct. For example, we now have a short summary, and we have produced shorter videos explaining the advantages of the two offers with concrete examples.

Finally, we have also encouraged our entity correspondents to set up webinars for their employees along with training sessions.

What are the next steps for 2025?

One of our big challenges is to better equip our employees with financial know-how. For the second time, in 2025, we will host the Invest in you days, with the HR team, in the first half of the year. This is an integral part of our Care & Dare for Progress strategy that is dedicated to enabling employees to better manage their finances and make the most of the financial opportunities at AXA.