In total, 58 SEs have been added to the database in the three months since the previous update. At the time of writing, the ECDB (SE Factsheets) provides information on 601 established and 19 planned SEs. (At least) 151 companies or so are considered ‘normal SEs’.

Only three recently established SEs were added to this category, all of them registered in Germany. Two of the three recently established ‘Normal’ companies were formed by conversion – Cloppenburg Automobil SE and BP Europa SE – and retained their two-tier system. In accordance with the ‘before and after’ principle, only BP granted board-level participation rights to its employees.

In the case of Ortus SE, which is a small company with 11 employees, details on employee involvement are not yet known.

Twelve – already established – SEs were re-categorised as ‘Normal’, as some information became available about them. Details about employee involvement – apart from Clariant SE – are still not known, however.

To summarise the current numbers (April figures in brackets), there are:

601 (543) established SEs, of which:

  • 151 (136) normal SEs (min. 5 employees);

  • 83 (76) empty SEs (no employees);

  • 290 (259) UFO + Micro-SE (5 employees);

  • 77 (72) shelf (no employees, no business activities)