MUNICH—More and more Siemens employees are investing in their company. Of 348,000 active employees worldwide, about 153,000 – or roughly 44 percent of Siemens’ total workforce – currently own company shares. This is a 6 percent increase over last year’s figure of 144,000 employee shareholders. This year, globally, more than 120,000 employees – or about 38 percent of all eligible employees – took part in the centerpiece, the Siemens’ Share Matching Program. This is around 8 percent more than in the previous year and a very high figure compared to similar global share programs. After a three-year holding period, participating employees receive one matching share at no additional expense for every three shares held. This year, Siemens distributed around 539,000 of these matching shares with a total value of about €47 million. Overall, nearly 80,000 employees in 65 countries profited from the distribution. Program participants have long-term investment horizons: 84 percent of all employee shareholders still hold their matching shares even three years after receiving them.
“Employees are reliable company owners. I’m very pleased that more and more Siemens employees are participating in our share plans and remaining faithful for so long. Their actions clearly demonstrate that we’ve further strengthened our ownership culture and that our employees support our realignment and firmly believe in Siemens’ long-term success,” said Joe Kaeser, Siemens President and CEO.
Current and former employees own around 5 percent of all Siemens shares, making them one of the company’s largest shareholder groups.
The Share Matching Program, which is one of the world’s largest employee share programs, forms the core of Siemens’ equity culture. Since the program’s launch as an additional incentive for share purchases, the number of employee shareholders has risen by about two-thirds from the original figure of 92,000.
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