What does gold stock mean? In the corporate governance structure, what bills in Hong Kong are rejected by the relevant government agencies with one vote?

As an innovation of ownership structure, gold shares originated in the early 1980s. In the privatization reform of British public economy, in order to prevent the government from losing control of the reformed enterprises, the government set up gold shares in some enterprises related to the lifeline of the country and important industries. For example, after BT diversified its shares, the government introduced the concept of gold shares, stipulating that the government, as the holder of gold shares, has the right to veto the resolutions of other shareholders.

The particularity of gold shares lies in: first, the actual holder of gold shares is the government (or government-authorized departments), not non-governmental organizations, enterprises or individuals; Second, the right of gold shares is mainly reflected in the right of veto after the event on specific matters, rather than the right of income or other voting rights (manager nomination, etc.). ); Third, there is usually only one share of gold, which has no actual economic value; Fourth, gold shares have no uniform legal meaning, which is determined by the government through consultation with other shareholders.

Based on the above particularity, we believe that gold shares are a kind of specific shares held by the government to exercise veto power over specific matters, which is different from both preferred shares and common shares. The ultimate goal of the introduction of gold shares is to set up a kind of shares with only veto power afterwards and no income right, and match it with common shares and preferred shares to realize the rational allocation of income right and decision-making right in the ownership structure, so as to ensure that the government will gradually let state-owned shares retire under the premise that public enterprises are not out of control.