☕️ What an (Almost) 80-Year-Old Shareholder Taught Me — and Why Retail Requires Inclusion in Investor Relations
After Man Group’s 2025 AGM, I had tea with a 'Just tell Sid' generation shareholder. It was eye-opening — offering insight and raising timely questions about companies' retail engagement.
Sid’s generation is still showing up to AGMs — but beyond the AGM, what are companies doing to include retail investors in their year-round investor relations strategies?
Dear old Sid — the everyman of British Gas’s 1986 privatisation campaign — keeps being revived as a symbol of retail shareholder engagement. Barclays most recently invoked him in its ‘New Message to Sid’ paper. But as I wrote in an earlier article, Sid would now be 74 — and many of his generation are still actively investing. They turn up to AGMs. They ask questions. They hold shares directly or through platforms. And they’re not going anywhere.
What’s less clear is how well companies understand them — or the broader retail shareholder base at all.
Companies study their institutional investors in depth — their holdings, mandates, ESG priorities, and voting behaviours. But how many apply that same level of analysis or curiosity to their retail shareholders?
These questions framed a recent post-AGM coffee I had with a shareholder from Sid’s generation after Man Group’s 2025 AGM on 9 May. Decades into investing, he remains highly engaged: attending meetings, actively reading financials, and managing his portfolio via a Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) — a structure that gives him full control over how and where his capital is deployed.
And that’s where the real shift lies.
Retail investors are no longer just passive participants — many are self-directed capital allocators.
In fact, Sid’s Boomer generation may have more in common with Gen Z than we tend to think. Today’s younger investors want sovereignty over both their wealth, intellect and decision-making — hence the rise of crypto with its DAO (decentralised autonomous organisation) ethos, and the explosive growth of DIY and social trading platforms like Trading 212, interactive investor, eToro, and Freetrade.
This mindset shift has real strategic implications. If investor relations continues to focus primarily on institutions, it risks missing the very people who are actively deciding where to place their long-term trust — and their money.
Fortunately, some companies are starting to get this.
🏛️ Prudential, a recent TEA Cup Honouree, not only engaged shareholders at its May 2024 AGM but also hosted a dedicated retail shareholder event in September — recognising that retail inclusion requires more than a once-a-year touchpoint.
🧓 Standard Chartered also earned Honours, with Chair Dr José Viñals publicly acknowledging older, long-standing retail shareholders at its AGM (on and off the stage) — a small gesture, but a powerful signal.
🔍 BlackRock’s UK-listed funds quietly set a benchmark three years ago by voluntarily identifying and engaging retail investors hidden behind nominee accounts and private client brokers — and personally inviting them, along with a guest, to attend their AGMs.
✉️ MP Evans, in a similar spirit, sees its Chair personally write to retail shareholders — extending a warm, direct invitation (plus-one included) to encourage strong turnout at the AGM.
And then there’s Man Group — TEA’s inaugural Honouree, recognised for its exceptional social engagement and its commitment to financial literacy, social mobility, and broadening access to finance. Through its initiatives, Man Group opens doors for individuals from all backgrounds — particularly younger people from underrepresented communities — to explore careers in finance and develop investing confidence.
But even for exemplars, there’s room to go further — not even through overhaul, but through thoughtful, year-round inclusion of retail shareholders who are showing up, staying invested, and increasingly shaping the future of the capital markets.
🏛️ From AGM to Action: Time to Rebuild the Retail–Company Conversation
One of the most compelling observations shared during our chat was about the gradual decline of company-facing retail shareholder meetings. In the past, organisations like UKSA (the UK Shareholders’ Association) helped facilitate regular, in-person dialogue between listed companies and individual investors. These weren’t political gatherings — they were practical ones, helping shareholders decide where to invest, who to trust, and what to hold.
“That’s how I figured out where I wanted to invest,” the shareholder told me. That stuck with me.
Today, digital platforms like Investor Meet Company and Engage Investor are doing important work to democratise access to company communications. But as he gently pointed out, not everyone finds digital engagement satisfying on its own. Especially for SIPP holders or long-term investors who are allocating real capital, there’s still strong demand for the nuance, empathy, and context that come through live, human interaction.
This is exactly where The Engagement Appeal (TEA) hopes to contribute — not to compete, but to complement. The tools are already there. What’s missing is the connective tissue: structured, compliant, in-person (or hybrid) opportunities for companies and retail shareholders to meet, talk, and learn from each other. And that’s the call to action: to restore spaces where relationships can be built, trust can be earned, and investment decisions can be shaped through actual conversation. Compliantly.
🧓 Two Portfolios, One Mindset
The shareholder described his approach as maintaining two distinct portfolios: one focused on income — dividend-paying shares that offer stability — and another for speculative or growth-oriented opportunities. His SIPP gives him the flexibility and control to shape both.
This is where his investing philosophy becomes strategic: he’s not looking for hype. He’s building something balanced, purposeful, and resilient. And he’s doing it without intermediaries. That self-direction — especially in later life — is powerful. It also signals a shift that companies should acknowledge: many individual investors aren’t passive. They’re allocating capital with intention — and their decisions are shaped by trust, access, and direct engagement.
🔁 From Personal to Pooled
We also spoke about how the UK investing landscape has evolved. Decades ago, it was common to hold shares directly. You knew what you owned. You attended the AGM. You asked questions.
Today, most UK retail investors hold shares via platforms like Trading 212, interactive investor, AJ Bell and Hargreaves Lansdown — platforms that have transformed access to the markets and brought investing into the mainstream for millions.
But despite the efforts of these platforms, just 11% of UK-listed shares are now held by individuals, according to ONS data — a steep decline from the 54% held by retail investors in the 1960s, and a reflection of decades of institutional dominance.
In contrast, retail investors in the US hold around 45% of Tesla shares — a stake worth nearly as much as the entire market capitalisation of AstraZeneca, the UK’s largest listed company.
The message is clear: retail capital hasn’t disappeared — it’s evolved. It’s wealthier, more independent, and increasingly vocal. What’s missing isn’t participation — it’s recognition. UK companies risk missing out on long-term retail capital (including to the US and the Gulf who already see the value of nextgen individual investor) by not recognising and including retail in their ongoing IR strategies.
💬 Engagement Doesn’t Have to Be Loud
What struck me most was the tone of the conversation. There was no campaigning. No confrontation. Just thoughtful reflection, and a steady desire to stay informed.
This is the kind of engagement companies say they want — the kind that’s consistent, respectful, and focused on long-term alignment. But to cultivate it, companies need to offer more than voting portals and webcast transcripts. They need to offer presence. And they need to build feedback loops that work for investors who are in it for the right reasons.
📢 Retail Influence Is Real
Finally, we talked about impact. Can retail investors genuinely shape a company’s direction?
His answer was steady: yes — especially over time. Just three years ago, Cambridge students were protesting against Rolls-Royce. I personally witnessed this while I was the entrepreneur-in-residence at the King’s College E Lab. Today, the company has over 205,000 followers on the Trading 212 chat — a large and vocal retail community that monitors, debates, and engages about Roll-Royce’s strategy and share price in real time.
What was once a source of scepticism has become a source of retail momentum. These investors didn’t protest — they participated. They asked questions. They invested. They held through transformation.
Retail capital may not always make headlines, but it builds conviction through presence. Companies that acknowledge and engage this base will find not just support — but long-term alignment.
💡 What I Took Away
This wasn’t just coffee — or tea. It was a conversation that reframed how I think about different investing styles, the often-overlooked Sid generation of shareholders, and the untapped capital power of Sids, their kids, and their grandkids.
If better recognised and understood, this cross-generational retail force could help reinvigorate the UK’s capital markets — not as a nostalgic throwback, but as a real, measurable driver of long-term investment.
Here’s what stood out:
🟢 Retail shareholders matter — not just during AGM season, but all year round.
🟢 SIPP investors are capital allocators, managing their wealth with care, autonomy, and long-term focus.
🟢 In-person engagement builds trust, especially among Boomers who are steering their own pensions.
🟢 Hybrid platforms that blend access with real dialogue will shape the next era of shareholder relations.
Behind every share is a shareholder — and they deserve to be seen.
Companies scrutinise institutions down to the mandate. But retail investors? Still too often overlooked.That’s no longer sustainable. Retail is here, it’s engaged — and it’s ready to lead.
🫖 What’s Brewing at TEA
Following this conversation, for which I thank the shareholder who wishes to remain unnamed, I am determinded to engage more deliberately with companies about creating year-round engagement opportunities with their retail shareholders — not to challenge, but to listen, learn, and connect.
This will includes working with organisations like UKSA, as well as corporate advisers, and facilitating organised group meetings with retail shareholders, to support structured, compliant dialogue that builds understanding and trust on both sides.
Because if one thoughtful investor can reshape how we think over tea, imagine what 100 of them could do together.
📩 Want to be part of future TEA roundtables or share your investing story?
Subscribe, share, or drop me a line at AGM@teaxall.org. Let’s refresh investor relations and infuse it with much-needed retail power and capital.