Based on an analysis of 1,232 leveraged ESOP transactions at three large banks, 1.3% of ESOP companies in the sample defaulted on their loans in a way that imposed losses on their creditors for loans in effect between 2009 and 2013 (an average annual rate of 0.2%).
The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) issued new regulations on June 20 to allow employees to buy shares in listed companies out of their compensation. The shares must be held for 36 months.
Employees of three rural businesses in Maine worked with the Cooperative Development Institute and the Independent Retailers Shared Services Cooperative to form a new business, the Island Employee Cooperative (IEC), which bought the three businesses from their original owners.
In a June 23, 2014, article in the Wall Street Journal, Ruth Simon and Sarah Needleman note that the "federal government is stepping up scrutiny" of ESOP valuations, driven by concern especially at the Department of Labor (DOL).
The NCEO now estimates that there were 8,926 companies with ESOPs and similar plans in the United States at the end of 2011, including 6,941 companies with ESOPs and 1,985 with plans that, while not ESOPs, share a number of similar features.
The Department of Labor brought a 2012 suit against GreatBanc Trust Co., alleging that in 2006 it allowed the Sierra Aluminum ESOP to overpay for company shares. In the settlement, GreatBanc and its insurers will pay $5.3 million, including $4.8 million to the ESOP and $0.5 million in penalties.
A proposal before the New York City Council would allocate $1.2 million to support a Worker Cooperative Business Development Initiative. The initiative would provide financial and technical assistance to worker cooperatives and would coordinate training resources.
Craig Foss, the Commerce Minister of New Zealand, announced in March that the government would simplify employee disclosure requirements for companies offering employee ownership plans.
Public television stations around the country will run the documentary ShiftChange, a film that describes worker cooperatives in the United States and investigates the connections to the Mondragon cooperatives in the Basque region of Spain.
Joseph Blasi, one of the three authors of The Citizen's Share: Reducing Inequality in the 21st Century (the others are Douglas Kruse and Richard Freeman), appeared on television to discuss his book about employee ownership, equity compensation, and profit sharing.
If the best way to make a company stronger is to learn from the specific practices of some of the most successful companies, then Shared Entrepreneurship: A Path to Engaged Employee Ownership by Frank Shipper will give leaders, employee committees, and anyone with an interest in the succes
