New study: tax haven subsidiaries of CAC-40 companies

The excellent French publication Alternatives Économiques has published a major new study into the tax haven presence of French companies in the CAC-40 index, representing France's biggest listed companies. It's in French, though a rough web translation is here.

This new report complements a study released by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) in January which showed US companies and their subsidiaries in tax havens, highlighting delicious (though if you think about it, frightening) facts such as the one that Citigroup had 427 offshore subsidiaries (the original study here.) It also complements a study produced for Britain's Trades Unions Congress (TUC) by TJN's Richard Murphy and released on January 27 showing how Britain's five biggest banks -- Lloyds TSB, RBS, HSBC and Barclays have between them 1,207 subsidiaries in Cayman, Jersey and other tax havens.

The new French study helps provide esssential new information to fill out the picture. Something of a pattern is emerging here. As with the U.S. and British studies: while plenty of companies have numerous tax haven subsidiaries, it is the banks and financial companies that tend to stand out. It also seems fair to say that French banks and financial companies seem to be rather less present in tax havens than British and American ones - but not dramatically so. As Alternatives Économiques said:

"BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole and Société générale have 361 offshore entities. If you add Banques populaires, Dexia and the Banque postale (present in Luxembourg), you reach a total of 467."

BNP Paribas, the report said, is by far the biggest culprit, it said (see graph.) Outside the financial sector, it also singled out LVMH, Schneider, PPR, France Télécom, Danone, Pernod and Capgémini. They estimated that a third of foreign investment overseas is located in tax havens.

Company Number of tax haven subsidiaries

BNP Paribas . . . . . . . .189
LVMH . . . . . . . . . . . . .140
Schneider . . . . . . . . . .131
Crédit agricole . . . . . .115
PPR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .97
Banque populaire . . . 90
France Telecom . . . . .63
Société générale . . . . .57
Lagardère . . . . . . . . . .55
Danone . . . . . . . . . . . .47
EADS. . . . . . . . . . . . . .46
Peugeot . . . . . . . . . . . .39
Carrefour. . . . . . . . . . .32
Pernod. . . . . . . . . . . . .32
Capgemini. . . . . . . . . .31
Unibail. . . . . . . . . . . . .31
Axa. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28
Michelin. . . . . . . . . . . .27
Air liquide. . . . . . . . . . 22
Essilor . . . . . . . . . . . . .22
L'Oréal. . . . . . . . . . . . .22
Bouygues. . . . . . . . . . .18
Sanofi Aventis. . . . . . .18
Renault. . . . . . . . . . . . .16
Dexia . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
Accor . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
Lafarge . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
Saint-Gobain . . . . . . . .11
GDF Suez . . . . . . . . . . .9

All of them, it turns out. have substantial presence in tax havens. Data was not available for Air France-KLM, Total, STMicroelectronics and Vinci. The excel spreadsheet with the data is here.

Bit by bit, the offshore system is being exposed. Another excellent report.