Friday, August 28, 2009

Mailing annual reports to shareholders

A funny thing happened last week. I bought 3 shares (Yes, only 3 shares) of a company to test an algorithm. I sold off the shares after 2 days.
I got the annual report of the company after 3-4 days. This is SEBI's directive that all the shareholders must get the hard copy of the annual report of the company. But going by my experience, I think that all the shareholders holding even 1 share on a particular date will be mailed the annual report.
I am not at all bullish on this stock and bought it for the first time; and sold it in 2 days. Then why on earth I was mailed the annual report. There was a Rs 10 stamp on the annual report and printing the annual report itself would have costed the company (read other shareholders) about 10-20 Rs.

The regulation can be improved and I suggest that a shareholder has to hold a minimum of (number of shares * trading days on which the share was hold) in an entire financial year to be eligible to get the annual report. There will obviously be fine-tunings and changes in the suggestion given above but this would definitely save the money of other shareholders.

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