The Baillie Gifford US Growth (USA) annual general meeting is over with shareholders waiting on the board to declare whether Saba’s third attempt to gain control has been successful.
An announcement is expected this afternoon once the last remaining votes have been counted.
The USA and Baillie Gifford camp were tight lipped as to the result which the board will know as they hold a post-AGM meeting.
The mood was serious if not sombre which may indicate victory for Saba, which holds a 29% stake and is believed to have the support of another hedge fund, Sessa Capital, on 7.7%.
Chair Tom Burnet struck a valedictory note telling Baillie Gifford’s Gary Robinson that he had “always enjoyed” his presentations after the co-manager told shareholders he remained “as excited by the strategy” as he was at the trust’s launch eight years ago. This was a different to the more defiant tone he took in a shareholder webinar with senior independent director Sue Inglis last month.
Similarly, a man – and one of the few private shareholders among the crowd of advisers and Baillie Gifford staffers at law firm Stephenson Harwood’s HQ in London – thanked the manager and board, deepening the sense of a changing in the guard.
However, in a brief conversation with this correspondent after the meeting, James Waterlow, managing director of Saba UK, said ambiguously: “We may be here next year.”
It was not clear if he was referring to Saba continuing its war of attrition against the £1bn investment trust or returning as a dominant shareholder with a compliant board.
Waterlow is one of three non-independent directors nominated for election by Saba. In a comical moment in the AGM, a woman shareholder asked him to state what a victory for Saba would mean for retail shareholders.
“We’ve said everything we want to,” he replied. In fact Saba’s nominees have said nothing throughout the whole process.
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