In recent years, employee stock ownership plans have gained increasing favor among listed companies as an important market capitalization management tool. According to WIND statistics, as of September 7, calculated by pre-announcement dates, a total of 230 companies have launched employee stock ownership plans this year. Among them, three companies with initial funding scales exceeding 1 billion yuan include BYD Company Limited, Midea Group, and Zhongfu Industry.
BYD Company Limited has the largest employee stock ownership plan for the year. On the evening of March 17, BYD announced its 2025 Employee Stock Ownership Plan (Draft), involving total funds not exceeding 4.1 billion yuan. The announcement showed that participants include employee representative supervisors, senior management personnel, as well as middle management and core backbone employees of the BYD Group. The total number of employees participating in the stock ownership plan does not exceed 25,000. Just over two months later, on May 24, BYD announced the completion of stock purchases for the employee stock ownership plan, amounting to 3.99 billion yuan.
Ranking second is Midea Group, whose employee stock ownership plan targets core management and core technical personnel, totaling 601 people, including 13 senior management personnel of the company. The total amount of this stock ownership plan is 1.331 billion yuan.
It is worth noting that some employee stock ownership plans have set performance assessment indicators. For example, Comix Group's recently launched employee stock ownership plan has company performance assessment indicators: the first attribution uses 2024 audited operating revenue as the base, with 2025 operating revenue growth rate not less than 3%; or uses 2024 audited net profit as the base, with 2025 net profit not less than 140 million yuan (growth rate 123%). The second attribution uses 2024 audited operating revenue as the base, with 2026 operating revenue growth rate not less than 8%; or uses 2024 audited net profit as the base, with 2026 net profit not less than 180 million yuan (growth rate 187%).
Most companies state that launching employee stock ownership plans aims to motivate employee enthusiasm and promote long-term healthy company development. For example, Zhi Ou Technology stated that the purpose is to establish and improve the benefit-sharing mechanism between employees and shareholders, enhance corporate governance levels, improve employee cohesion and company competitiveness, mobilize employee enthusiasm and creativity, and promote long-term, sustainable, and healthy company development.
WIND data shows that most employee stock ownership plan funding sources are employee compensation and self-raised funds, with some plan funding coming from stock ownership plan bonuses, shareholder or actual controller loans, etc.
From the perspective of stock sources for employee stock ownership plans, there are four methods including buybacks, competitive transfers, subscription for additional shares, and shareholder gifts. Among them, share buybacks are currently the most common choice.
"Compared to equity incentives, employee stock ownership plans have a broader target range," said Yang Delong, Chief Economist at Qianhai Open Source. "Listed companies launching employee stock ownership plans aim to bind employee interests with company interests, thereby improving employee enthusiasm. Overall, the higher the price and larger the amount of employee stock ownership plans, the greater the positive impact on related company stock prices."