Australia’s first company owned by an employee ownership trust

19 July 2021

On June 24, 2021, Meld Studios announced that it was transitioning ownership from its three founders to an employee ownership trust (EOT) that owns shares on behalf of all 22 Meld employees.

The adoption of the EOT is the result of a year-long effort to adapt the EOT model to the specifics of Australia’s tax and regulatory environment. Meld worked with Graeme Nuttall of the UK law firm Fieldfisher, who has been leading a global effort to introduce EOTs (see his paper An Introduction to the Employee Ownership Trust). Australia’s Employee Ownership Association (EOA) also supported Meld’s efforts, and EOA’s chair Andrew Clements says, “There has been significant interest from small businesses following our work in relation to EOTs. It is a model which is regarded as providing a very effective tool for employee ownership without the complexities of allocated employee share plans.”

Read the full article, Australia’s First Company Owned by an Employee Ownership Trust: Meld Studios, by Loren Rodgers, Executive Director, National Center for Employee Ownership