The curious case of absent shareholders

Companies see turnout at AGMs decline despite post-pandemic surge in shareholder numbers

- SACHIN P MAMPATTA

Only one of every 10,000 shareholders of companies attended an annual general meeting (AGM) this calendar year, shows early data from large companies. This had been five to eight times higher in 2019. The drop comes even as companies have seen an increase in the number of shareholders.

The AGM is an opportunity for shareholders to interact with the company management, ask questions, and raise issues they deem important. The number of attendees dropped to 2,278 in 2025 as against 4,217 in 2019 across 10 blue-chip companies whose AGM attendance data Business Standard analysed. The AGMs conducted in 2025 are for 2024-25 (FY25) and 2019 meetings similarly correspond to FY19. The median company had one attendee per 10,000 shareholders compared to five per 10,000 in 2019.

Including other available BSE Sensex companies for 2019 shows attendance before the pandemic was at eight per 10,000 shareholders. The 10 companies have added between 300,000 and 5.6 million shareholders since then.