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MARKET SUMMARY OUTLOOK MKT. SHARE
Australia

Six years ago 80% of the top 50 ASX listed companies offered share plans. Now over 80% of the top 350 listed companies have at least one plan, and some of these operate three types of plans. Many subsidiaries of multinationals run plans for their Australian employees, who collectively employ more people than ASX listed companies. There are no other direct competitors in Australia at the moment offering the full range of services to match CPM, and certainly no providers with the global network. There are currently over 750,000 employees participating in share plans, in respect of over $3 billion worth of shares.

Currently all sides of politics are keen to further enhance widespread and deeper levels of employee ownership in Australia. We expect further tax and regulatory concessions to encourage this process, with details expected to become public as we approach the next Federal election at the end of 2001. Australian companies are following international trends by providing shares and options as part of employee remuneration. Leading financial commentators are also enthusiastically endorsing share plans as effective financial planning facilities. These factors lead us to expect the market will experience serious growth in line with North America and UK.
United Kingdom The key event in the UK over the last year has been the introduction of the All Employee Share Ownership Plan (AESOP). The UK Government has recognised the role employee share ownership can play in improving the performance of UK companies. The new plan gives some of the most generous tax breaks for share plans anywhere in the world, and they have set a target of doubling the number of companies offering share plans to their employees. The equity incentives market is very buoyant, with an increasing number of companies providing their employees with shares in one form or another. More international companies are also looking at ways to provide shares to their overseas employees. CPM is ideally placed to benefit in this market. We have a significant client base already. We are able to administer all types of employee share plans and our international capability exceeds anything our competitors can provide. We are also at the leading edge of new technology for this market. We believe the market will continue to grow over the coming years. Share plans are high profile now and there is clear government backing for effective equity incentives. The AESOP will provide increasing opportunities to grow our client base. We also anticipate an increase in the number of companies looking to outsource their own in-house share plan administration service. We are optimistic both about the future growth prospects of the market and our ability to capitalise on that growth.
USA There is a growing participation in employee plans, with more and more companies granting options to a broader base of employees. Research indicates that companies are continuing to issue broad based option plans despite rocky market conditions. Other studies are showing that the granting of options to mid-level managers is correlated to an increase in shareholder returns. This continues to present a tremendous opportunity for Computershare and its employee plan product line. Computershare is uniquely positioned to benefit from the continuing growth of employee incentive schemes linked with the trend for companies to outsource the resulting administration.