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EFES NEWSLETTER - JANUARY 2026
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Great
Britain
– The rise and sabotage of employee ownership
in SMEs
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Over
the past ten years, employee ownership in SMEs has seen
extraordinary growth in Great Britain. We were rapidly
moving towards a situation where one in ten SMEs would
be employee-owned. In most cases, employees become 100%
owners of their company. Without having to spend a single
penny of their own money. This success was due to the
introduction of the Employee Ownership Trust
mechanism in 2014.
And then... on the basis of haphazard figures and in
the name of an outdated ideology, the new British government
chose to tax and re-tax business transfers. As of 26
November, the tax exemption on capital gains relating
to the sale of a company to employees has been halved.
The effect is dramatic. Overnight, business transfers
to employees in Great Britain ground to a halt.
The graph below shows that, of every hundred businesses
transferred today, eight are passed on to employees.
The prediction model (dotted line) indicates that this
figure will drop to close to zero by the end of this
year if the decision is not corrected. There is only
one way to avert disaster. It is essential to reinstate
the 100% exemption on capital gains relating to the
sale of a company to employees.
More
info
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Denmark - A counterexample
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Today, we know that business transfers to employees
are possible on a large scale, without employees having
to invest a single cent of their own money.
For this to work, two technical conditions are required:
1. The
mechanism is that of collective employee ownership,
embodied in a legal vehicle of the trust type.
2. The
owners should be 100% exempt from capital gains tax
on the sale of the company to employees.
Instead of trying to replicate the conditions for success
that have proven effective elsewhere, the Danish legislator
has opted for an original national approach. The law
was passed by the Danish Parliament on 19 December.
Have the two conditions for success been met? No!
Instead of a trust, the legal vehicle intended to represent
the employees is a capital company or cooperative, with
no tax exemption for the sale of the company to the
employees.
This is a twofold error - the Danish mechanism will
not work.
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Press
review
A
selection of 26 remarkable articles in 8 countries in December
2025: Canada, Czechia, Denmark, France, Italy, Slovenia, UK,
USA.
Canada:
Employee Ownership Trusts in Canadian style.
Czechia: The new law on employee share plans comes
into effect on January 1st.
Denmark: The law on business transfers to employees
was passed on December 19th.
France: New employee share plans for Axa and for Spie.
Employee buyouts in haphazard fashion.
Italy: New employee share plans for Eni and for Stellantis.
Slovenia: The new employee ownership model is the most
successful in the world.
UK: Following the Labour government's decision, employee
buyouts have been halted. The reactions are generally reassuring
and soothing – it'll be alright, my friend.
Perhaps for the last time in this column (all these press
reports being prior to the government decision): Thanks to
the Employee Ownership Trust formula, two new SMEs are transferred
to their employees every day now. This time, among others,
the cases of: Penny Engineering, Advanced Plastics, Mike Whitfield
Construction, Adder Technology, Contractor, Kinase Digital,
Artemis Marketing, Berry’s Coaches.
USA: Avis Alaska now 100 percent employee-owned.
Guidon pioneers Employee Ownership Trust in Indiana.
The full press review is available
on:
https://www.efesonline.org/PRESS
REVIEW/2025/December.htm
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A
political roadmap for employee ownership in Europe
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