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Investment trust insider on Scottish Mortgage

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Investment trust insider on Scottish Mortgage – James Carthew: Where Scottish Mortgage’s board is falling down

Most of the time, the world of investment companies is pretty staid. However, on Friday a boardroom row at Scottish Mortgage (SMT) spilled over into the press and made headlines.

A director, Professor Amar Bhidé, told the Financial Times he had clashed with chair Fiona McBain over the process to appoint two new board members, and questioned Baillie Gifford’s ability to manage the trust’s extensive portfolio of unquoted companies, saying, ‘In my opinion they do not have the capabilities and governance clout to be able to monitor the illiquid investments’.

It is vanishingly rare that disputes between directors are made public, and that is probably a good thing. It is hard to see how a board can function properly when members air discussions in public in this way. My immediate thought was that this was a resignation statement, but Scottish Mortgage has issued a statement that he has not quit and is still a non-executive director. That is going to make things awkward at the next board meeting.

The trust’s annual general meeting is planned for the end of June. I think…       read more here

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