Bhujia at the AGM

Listening to a friend’s experiences of attending a company’s annual general meeting last week, I came to discover that Haldiram’s Bhujia plays an important role in India’s capital markets. My friend went to this AGM, which was of a somewhat smaller company than he has hitherto been familiar with. Here’s what he observed. Outside the venue, there was a brisk trade in signed proxy forms. He found this surprising, because nothing remotely resembling a vote was expected. What was even more curious was that even though there was someone buying the proxy forms, and there were a number of shareholders selling them, the going price was only Rs 100 each. Watching the proceedings a little more closely, he also realised that many of the proxy-sellers were

This article was originally published on October 03, 2011.