A major Scottish investment trust is facing a third attempt by US hedge fund manager Boaz Weinstein’s Saba Capital Management to oust its board, only weeks after seeing off the last one.
The latest attempt by Mr Weinstein comes hard on the heels of defeat for Saba in its bid to do the same thing last month.
Other shareholders of Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust, which is managed from Edinburgh by Baillie Gifford, last month voted overwhelmingly against Saba’s proposals to oust the board and appoint three US-based individuals.
Excluding shares held by Saba, which requisitioned a general meeting of Edinburgh Worldwide investors held on January 20, shareholders representing 92.7% of the shares voted rejected Saba's proposals.
Edinburgh Worldwide, declaring its board would update shareholders on its plans "in the near future" as it responded to Saba's announcement of a third attempt to oust all of the existing directors, said today: "Since shareholders rejected its resolutions on 20 January, the board has made a number of attempts to engage with Saba and its advisers. On every occasion, Saba has failed to engage."
It described the latest move by Saba as another attempt to "take control of the company", and highlighted its view that the US hedge fund "is evidently choosing not to listen" to other shareholders in the investment trust.
Saba is proposing the appointment to Edinburgh Worldwide's board of the same three individuals, Gabriel Gliksberg, Michael Joseph, and Jassen Trenkow, at the investment trust’s forthcoming annual meeting as it did last month. The US hedge fund said today that it will propose these appointments as additional resolutions at the annual meeting and vote against the re-election of the existing directors.
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Edinburgh Worldwide chairman Jonathan Simpson-Dent noted last month that Saba owned “just over” 30% of Edinburgh Worldwide by that stage, up from “slightly under” 25% around the time of its first defeat in February last year.
When Edinburgh Worldwide saw off Saba in February 2025, it was at that stage the last of seven UK investment trusts targeted by the US hedge fund to repel an attempt to oust its board.
In spite of these seven defeats, Saba has continued to make its presence felt in the UK investment trust sector.
Saba has now written an open letter to shareholders of Edinburgh Worldwide, expressing dissatisfaction with the investment trust’s performance.
Edinburgh Worldwide, which had total assets of around £861.59 million at December 31 and has Elon Musk's SpaceX as the single largest investment in its portfolio, highlighted an impressive investment performance against its benchmark over the past year in the run-up to last month’s vote.
Taking into account Saba’s shareholding, investors holding 53.2% of the Edinburgh Worldwide shares voted opposed the resolutions put to the January 20 general meeting.
The investment trust observed on January 20 that shareholders representing more than 70% of the total issued share capital voted on the Saba resolutions put to that general meeting, "a record shareholder turnout, exceeding the turnout at last year's requisitioned general meeting".
It added: "This level of shareholder participation in the vote was supported by a high level of engagement by retail shareholders who hold their shares through digital platforms."
Edinburgh Worldwide said today: "For the third time, Saba is seeking to replace the entire independent board with its own nominees in order to take control of the company.
"Only three weeks ago, a record 70% of shareholders participated in the second vote in less than a year, with an overwhelming majority (93%) of non-Saba holders again rejecting its proposals. Despite this decisive outcome and the strong shareholder opposition to Saba taking control, Saba is evidently choosing not to listen."
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