Results published for EOT survey

The results of the latest EOT survey have today been published, reporting on the businesses to share information on their transition to an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT).

Administrated by RM2, in partnership with the EOA and John Lewis Partnership, the evergreen EOT Survey, was introduced in 2015 to measure the take-up of EOTs which offer capital gains tax relief for those selling the company as well as the option to give income tax free bonus to employees.

As RM2 now prepares to take a snapshot of EOT take-up for 2017, which will be shared in November, the partners in the survey – the EOA, RM2 and John Lewis Partnership – are urging businesses that have transitioned to an EOT (identified as 84 businesses in 2016) to take the survey to help provide crucial evidence to government and policy makers that the model is working.

The results reveal that the main reasons given as to why businesses chose to adopt the EOT model are employee engagement (28%), succession planning (26%) and to retain their independence as a company (20%).

In line with the employee ownership sector as a whole more than half, 56% of those surveyed, were from the professional services and manufacturing sector.

Of the 84 businesses identified 75% and had turnovers ranging from £150,000 to over £140million, while the 36 who took the survey employed a total of 5,000 people.

Of those who have responded 90% of shares were acquired from existing shareholders, founders and directors of the company with 63% telling us the acquired the shares at fair market value – 38% acquired shares through a loan from the seller, 18% said they were gifted and 15% used an external bank loan and 12% were a combination of methods.

CEO of the EOA Deb Oxley said: “It is really important that businesses that have transitioned to an EOT and have not already completed the survey do so in the next few weeks to get the best measures as possible to demonstrate the clear relevance of the business model in a time we are seeing unprecedented political and economic change.

“I would like to thank RM2 and John Lewis Partnership for their continued work and support on this important piece of research.”