Non-resident holdings of French CAC 40 shares at end-2018
Bulletin n°225, article 7. At the end of 2018, non-residents held EUR 557 billion worth of shares in French CAC 40 companies, or 42.2% of a total market capitalisation of EUR 1,319 billion. The rate of non-resident ownership thus declined for a fifth consecutive year, primarily due to a change in the composition of the index. Non-residents purchased a net total of EUR 5 billion of CAC 40 shares in 2018, whereas resident investors purchased a higher total of EUR 8.5 billion. Some 44.2% of non-resident investors are based in euro area countries, while 33% are based in the United States.
1. Non-resident ownership of French shares
Decline in non-resident ownership of CAC 40 shares and rise in ownership of non-CAC 40 shares
As at 31 December 2018, non-resident investors had a 42.2% shareholding in the 36 French companies listed in the CAC 40, down 0.9 percentage point on the previous year (see Chart 1) and continuing the decline observed since 2013.
Non-resident holdings of CAC 40 shares can be broken down into portfolio investments, which accounted for 90.6%, and direct investments, which accounted for 9.4% (see Chart 2).
Measured across all French listed stocks, non-resident ownership edged up slightly by 0.4 percentage points in 2018 to 37.8% (see Chart 2). This was the cumulative result of two effects:
- the sharp fall in the share of the market capitalisation of non-CAC 40 companies helped to push up the rate of non-resident ownership;
- in parallel, non-resident investors increased their overall stake in French non-CAC 40 companies slightly to 27.6% (see Chart 3).
Fewer than 30% of French CAC 40 companies are more than 50%-owned by non-residents
As at 31 December 2018, of the 36 French companies included in the CAC 40 index, only ten were majority owned by non-resident investors, down from 14 in 2015 which was the last year when the CAC 40 comprised 36 French companies (see Table 1 and Chart 4).
The dispersion of non-resident ownership rates for French CAC 40 companies increased in 2018. For the first quartile of companies (i.e. the least foreign-owned) non-resident ownership fell by 5 percentage points, whereas for the last quartile (i.e. the most foreign owned) it rose by 2 percentage points.
Non-resident ownership has declined in the majority of sectors
“Financial corporations” was the only sector to see a rise in the proportion of shares held by non-residents in 2018, following the decline caused by structural effects in 2017. As a result, the sector once again ranks first in terms of non-resident ownership. In contrast, in all other sectors, non-resident shareholdings declined in 2018. “Technology and telecommunications” saw the biggest drop, making it the sector with the lowest rate of non-resident ownership (see Chart 6).
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