The endgame?
In the midst of a period of difficult investment performance, Impax Environmental Markets (IEM) has been the subject of a campaign by the activist hedge fund Saba Capital. This led to an exit tender offer in May, which resulted in around 80% of shares being tendered. The much-diminished fund is now the subject of a Requisitioned General Meeting (RGM) on 17 June, at which Saba intends to remove the entire board of IEM and replace it with its own nominees.
IEM’s current chairman has stated that Saba has effective control over the company’s strategic direction, so it appears likely that Saba’s resolutions will pass at the RGM. If they do, it will mark the end of the current era at IEM, and the beginning of a potentially very different chapter, about which there is currently very little visibility, beyond a statement by Saba that the new board will be committed to delivering long-term value for all shareholders.
Capital growth and a more sustainable world
IEM is designed to enable investors to benefit from a highly differentiated, well-researched, and diversified portfolio of fast-growing, globally listed companies providing innovative solutions to environmental challenges or improving resource efficiency.
| Year ended | Share price total return (%) | NAV total return (%) | MSCI ACWI total return (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 31/05/2022 | (7.7) | (1.6) | 5.4 |
| 31/05/2023 | (3.6) | (3.0) | 3.3 |
| 31/05/2024 | (0.6) | 6.8 | 20.8 |
| 31/05/2025 | (6.4) | (7.7) | 8.0 |
| 31/05/2026 | 27.1 | 28.2 | 30.7 |
Upcoming AGM and RGM
IEM has been the subject of a campaign from the American activist hedge fund Saba Capital. Saba held a significant stake in IEM by the end of 2025, with the board concerned that this presented a significant challenge to the company’s stability and mandate, given different groups of shareholders on the register with very different investment strategies.
Following engagement with shareholders, including Saba, a continuation tender offer was launched in 2026. However, Saba did not support this, nor the board’s condition that it tender all or near all its shares. Therefore, fearing the risk of the sort of destabilising and expensive dispute with Saba that a number of investment companies in the sector have faced, the board launched a fallback exit tender offer.
This exit tender offer was supported by over 99% of shareholders who voted, and completed on 19 May. Almost 80% of IEM’s shares were tendered, with most non-Saba shareholders clearly not wanting to be invested in a Saba-controlled vehicle.
There is now a realistic prospect of Saba taking control of the much smaller fund that exists post the tender offer. Following share buyback activity by the trust, as at 21 May, Saba owns 31.36% of the shares and has issued a valid requisition notice to the board to remove the entire board and replace it with Saba nominees. The board is therefore obliged to convene a Requisitioned General Meeting. This will take place on the same day as the Annual General Meeting, on 17 June.
The chairman of IEM, Glen Suarez, wrote to shareholders on 22 May accepting that “Saba now has effective control over the company’s strategic direction”. He also stated the unanimous recommendation of the board to vote in favour of all the AGM resolutions, including the re-election of the current board, and the unanimous recommendation to vote against all of the Saba resolutions at the RGM. Glen states that the board has no visibility on what the plans of Saba and their nominated directors are, and that “a board nominated by Saba provides an unknown future, with unknown directors susceptible to pressure from Saba as the company’s largest shareholder and the entity that nominated them to their position as directors”.
Asset allocation
At the end of April 2026, IEM had 54 holdings, down very slightly from the 55 holdings at the time of our last note (which used data from 31 March 2025).
North America remains IEM’s largest geographic exposure, although it has reduced from 57% to 46% over the past year. The European exposure has increased from 29% to 34%. In terms of sectors, weightings towards energy management and efficiency, and digital infrastructure have increased since our last note.
Figure 1: IEM portfolio by geography as at 30 April 20261
Figure 1: IEM portfolio by geography as at 30 April 20261
Top 10 holdings
Figure 3: IEM 10 largest holdings as at 30 April 2026
| Stock | Subsector | Country | As at 30/04/26 (%) | As at 31/03/25 (%) | Change(%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Siemens Energy | Smart & efficient grids | Germany | 4.4 | n/a | n/a |
| Waste Connections | General waste management | United States | 3.5 | 3.3 | 0.2 |
| Air Liquide | Industrial energy efficiency | France | 3.5 | n/a | n/a |
| SSE | Renewable energy development | United Kingdom | 3.0 | n/a | n/a |
| Contemporary Amperex Tech | Advanced road vehicles & devices | China | 3.0 | n/a | n/a |
| KLA | Water efficiency | United States | 2.8 | n/a | n/a |
| Novonesis (Novozymes) | Sustainable agriculture | Denmark | 2.8 | n/a | n/a |
| Veolia Environnement | Water utilities | France | 2.8 | n/a | n/a |
| Littelfuse | Industrial energy efficiency | United States | 2.3 | n/a | n/a |
| Schneider Electric | Smart & efficient grids | France | 2.2 | n/a | n/a |
| Total of top 10 | 30.3 |
IEM has overhauled its list of top ten holdings in the past year. As shown in Figure 3, of the top ten on 31 March 2025, only Waste Connections is still on the list, with the other nine holdings being different. The managers have made big changes in an attempt to arrest recent disappointing performance.
Performance
IEM has struggled against the MSCI ACWI index, as shown in Figures 4 and 5. A strong year up to May 2021 has now fallen out of the five-year comparison and, though there have been some periods of steady performance since, generally the direction of relative returns has been downwards. This is due both to the very strong run in global equities, driven by technology companies falling outside IEM’s remit, in particular, as well as IEM’s investment style being out of favour. Rising inflation and interest rates from the end of 2021 were a particular headwind to growth-focused stocks, and inflationary concerns have also reemerged recently.
Figure 4: IEM performance relative to MSCI ACWI over five years ended 31 May 2026
Figure 5: IEM cumulative returns for periods ending 31 May 2026
| 3 months(%) | 6 months(%) | 1 year(%) | 3 years(%) | 5 years(%) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IEM price | 2.4 | 16.9 | 27.1 | 15.9 | 5.2 |
| IEM NAV | 9.2 | 19.3 | 28.2 | 23.3 | 20.6 |
| MSCI AC World Index | 7.6 | 11.6 | 30.7 | 68.2 | 85.5 |
Previous publications
Readers interested in further information about IEM may wish to read our previous notes (details are provided in Figure 6 below). You can read the notes by clicking on them below or by visiting our website.
Figure 6: QuotedData’s previously published notes on IEM
| Title | Note type | Date published |
|---|---|---|
| Sustainable long-term growth | Initiation | 3 June 2024 |
| Delayed but not derailed | Update | 3 December 2024 |
| Significant headwinds, but still value | Update | 8 May 2025 |
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