LONDON (Reuters) -Shareholders in Herald Investment Trust on Wednesday rejected a campaign by U.S. activist investor Saba Capital to overhaul its board, in a blow to founder Boaz Weinstein’s wider push to shake-up the UK’s 269 billion pound ($333 billion) trust sector.
Saba’s eight resolutions were rejected by around 65% of votes cast and received just 35% backing. Herald said once Saba’s own votes in favour of its resolutions were excluded, it received just 0.15% of the votes cast.
Weinstein’s hedge fund Saba Capital Management is waging a campaign to overhaul seven British investment trusts over performances it has said ranged from “underwhelming” to “disastrous”.
The trusts have publicly hit back in recent weeks, dubbing Saba’s campaign opportunistic and not in the interests of broader shareholders.
Herald Investment Trust – the largest being targeted by Saba with a market capitalisation of around 1.2 billion pounds – said it welcomed the outcome and would be taking advice from advisers on next steps.
Herald invests globally in both listed and unlisted telecoms, multimedia and technology companies.
“Saba remains committed to putting shareholders’ interests first, delivering returns for U.K. trust investors and ultimately rehabilitating this broken sector,” Saba said in a statement.
“We urge shareholders of the six other trusts at which we have requisitioned General Meetings to support Saba’s resolutions in order to set these trusts on the path to meaningful value creation.”
($1 = 0.8087 pounds)
(Reporting by Iain Withers, editing by Sinead Cruise and Elaine Hardcastle)
