Hogan Lovells Publications | 15 December 2015

Going for Gold: How golden shares can help lock in mission for social enterprises

Hogan Lovells and Big Society Capital have today launched a report, ‘Going for Gold: How golden shares can help lock in mission for social enterprises’, which outlines how a social enterprise business can preserve its mission as it grows and raises further investment.
Many new tools are needed to align investors and enterprises towards and to protect a common mission. This report, Going for Gold, describes how golden shares can be deployed as such a tool in practice. For social investment, this could be a powerful way to identify innovative mission-locked businesses to help them to harness the deep pockets of financial capital, without jeopardising their social mission.

Mission-locked businesses can be powerful agents of change across Government in delivering public services, such as social care and early years’ education, where people need to trust that the organisations providing the services to loved ones are doing it for the right interests. Larger companies can also differentiate themselves to employees, consumers and the broader public by making a real long-term commitment to helping society as well as delivering a financial return. Robust and practical tools, like golden shares, can provide the mechanics for the building of a more mission-driven society.

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