Following its announcement on Friday in which it questioned the validity of a requisition request that it had received from Saba Capital (click here to see our coverage of that), Edinburgh Worldwide (EWI) has confirmed that it has now received a valid requisition notice on behalf of Saba Capital Management, LP. Saba is seeking a general meeting at which it is putting forward resolutions that propose to replace the Board and appoint alternative directors of Saba’s choosing [QD comment: we reiterate that it would be completely nonsensical for shareholders to cede control of the trust to one dominant shareholder that can then act entirely in its own interests, particularly when that shareholder’s proposals look very short term in nature and said shareholder is also proposing to install itself as the trust’s manager – managers controlling boards being a huge corporate governance No No, in fact we generally advocate that companies should have no representatives of the manager on their boards].

EWI’s board urges all shareholders to vote against Saba’s resolutions

EWI says that this new Requisition Notice supersedes Saba’s earlier request for a shareholder vote, which did not comply with Section 303 of the Companies Act 2006 and, accordingly, EWI’s Board will now convene a general meeting. It says that further details will be shared in due course but that “The Board will urge ALL investors to VOTE AGAINST Saba’s proposed resolutions”.

Comments from Jonathan Simpson Dent, chair of Edinburgh Worldwide

“Edinburgh Worldwide is an exciting and unique investment trust that offers unparalleled access to emerging companies, operating at the frontiers of science and technology. All this is threatened by Saba Capital. The proposals set out by Saba amount to a backdoor attempt to seize control of the trust. We will urge all of our investors to protect their investment, to protect their trust – and to vote to stop Saba.”