Linus Uhlig, Investment Week, 28 February 2025:
Saba Capital, the US activist hedge fund causing waves through the investment trust sector, has been accused of “making it up as they go along” by industry commentators.
Earlier in February, with six out of six vote losses under its belt and an admittance from the hedge fund’s founder and chief investment officer Boaz Weinstein that “we are for sure going to lose” the seventh, Saba launched a fresh round of investment trust-focused activism..
Investment Week spoke with a swathe of legal experts about what Saba could do next.
The possibilities of derivative action or a review were deemed unlikely given that Saba has not requested a strategic review or an independent report of any of the trusts for their performance..
However, according to Darius McDermott, managing director at Chelsea Financial Services, “Plan B looks a bit of a reactionary position rather than where [Saba] expected it to be”..
On Tuesday (25 February), Achilles investment company, an activist investment trust spearheaded by City veterans Robert Naylor and Christopher Mills at Harwood Capital, who are best known for orchestrating the sale of Hipgnosis Songs to Blackstone last year, floated on the London Stock Exchange.
Achilles will also focus on investing in closed-ended London-listed investment trusts and provide exit options for shareholders, but James Carthew, head of investment company research at QuotedData, said they were not running with the same modus operandi as Saba.
“This is the main difference between it and Saba. Achilles is genuinely being run for the benefit of all investors in these trusts rather than just its managers,” Carthew said.
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