Tom Aylott, Portfolio Adviser, 4 February 2025:
Saba Capital was defeated in a shareholder vote for the fourth time today (4 February) as investors in Henderson Opportunities rejected the hedge fund’s proposals.
Almost three-quarters (73.4%) of the trust’s shareholders participated in its general meeting this morning, with 65.4% of the votes cast going against Saba’s plans to oust chair Wendy Colquhoun and the board of directors.
Most of the votes in favour of the resolutions came from Saba, with just 0.7% of shares not affiliated with the firm voting in favour.
Yet Saba refrained from voting with all of the shares it owns in the trust. It used 24.7% of shares in the general meeting despite announcing it owned 29.1% of the trust’s shares on 29 January.
James Carthew, head of investment companies research at QuotedData, speculated that Saba may have sold some of its shares in Henderson Opportunities ahead of the vote.
“This is the second time that Saba seems to have voted fewer shares than expected. I am starting to wonder if it had already started selling them before the meeting in expectation that it was going to lose,” he said
“Given the consistent pattern of rejecting Saba’s proposals, it would perhaps be a better idea if it simply withdrew the remaining requisitions.”
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