Eve Maddock-Jones, Investment Week, 23 December 2024:
..The sector has been forced to evolve and adapt to an increasingly competitive market that is seeking diversification in the face of increasingly cheap trackers generating high returns from a narrowing market.
The final week of the year brought them little relief as seven trusts saw activist investor Saba Capital launch campaigns to oust their boards, on the grounds that they have failed to hold their respective investment managers accountable for the trusts’ wide discounts to their respective net asset values and “their inability to deliver sufficient shareholder returns”..
The situation has triggered a widespread conversation about company and shareholder engagement and, while Saba’s case against the boards and its methods for bringing about change may be debated, there is some space for nuance between bullying and calling for accountability..
Shareholders have a uniquely active role in the fortunes of their investment companies versus the rest of the market from a retail perspective, as their shares garner them a voice and a vote..
There is a general point of initial engagement before a public call out which seems to have been missed and according to Matthew Read, senior analyst at QuotedData, the US hedge fund has not been interested in progressive talks prior to these letters being released.
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