Saba has been attacking several investment trusts – none of which I hold. Shareholder votes have so far gone against them. They have now indicated that they propose to convert the trusts to open-ended funds.
The AIC have already indicated that they oppose any such change and have commented “Once published, it’s critical for shareholders to examine these proposals and their boards’ responses and vote at any meetings. We need to ensure that all shareholders have the opportunity to vote on the future of their trust. That’s why we have recently launched our ‘My share, my vote’ campaign to change the Companies Act so that nominees, including platforms, must pass on voting rights and information to their customers”. See https://www.theaic.co.uk/aic/news/press-releases/aic-comments-on-sabas-proposals-to-convert-four-investment-trusts-into-open
Changes to the Companies Act is something that I and ShareSoc have campaigned on for a number of years. The shareholders (i.e. owners) of companies purchased on platforms where they get put in nominee accounts have been disenfranchised – voting at General Meetings is made difficult if not impossible with a few exceptions.
Proposals to convert closed-end investment trusts seems plain daft to me. The existing structure has served investors well and if there are problems in these trusts (such as high discounts to NAV) there are other solutions although many people like purchasing assets at a discount. If long-term trust performance is an issue then changing the management and the board of directors is the way to go, not converting to open-end funds which would create other potential problems.
Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://x.com/RogerWLawson )
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