Benefits August 17, 2009

Survey Finds Companies with ESOP Outperformed Stock Market

August 17, 2009 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Results from the Employee Ownership Foundation's 18th Annual ESOP Economic Performance Survey show that 88.5% of ESOP companies outperformed the stock market in 2008.
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According to a press release, the results indicate respondents’ companies outperformed the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the NASDAQ Composite, and the S&P 500.

In addition, 50.9% of respondents indicated a better performance in 2008 than in 2007; 39.7% indicated a worse performance; and 9.4% indicated a nearly identical performance as the previous year, the announcement said. Nearly 58% indicated revenue increased, and more than half (50.4%) indicated profitability increased.

A majority (88.2%) of survey respondents reported that creating employee ownership through an ESOP (employee stock ownership plan) was a “good business decision that has helped the company.” In addition, 65% indicated the ESOP positively affected the overall productivity of the employees.

The 2009 Economic Performance Survey was distributed to The ESOP Association’s over 1,400 members in May 2009, and the results are based on 429 responses.

More information is at www.employeeownershipfoundation.org or www.esopassociation.org .

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