Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust announced yesterday that independent voting adviser Glass Lewis is recommending shareholders vote against all of the resolutions put by US hedge fund manager Boaz Weinstein’s Saba Capital Management to oust its board and appoint three US-based directors chosen by Saba.

Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), another independent voting adviser, earlier this week recommended Edinburgh Worldwide shareholders vote against all of the Saba resolutions, ahead of the January 20 general meeting of the investment trust requisitioned by the US activist in its bid to oust the board. Also this week, heavyweight institutional investor Legal & General declared it would be voting against all of Saba’s resolutions.

Edinburgh Worldwide yesterday observed Saba’s stake in it is slightly more than 30%.

Saba was defeated in February last year in a previous attempt to oust the entire board of Edinburgh Worldwide, which has Elon Musk’s SpaceX as the largest single investment in its portfolio.

Edinburgh Worldwide had total assets of around £831.55 million at November 30 and is managed by Edinburgh-based Baillie Gifford.

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Jonathan Simpson-Dent, chairman of Edinburgh Worldwide, said: “We are pleased to note the conclusions of Glass Lewis and ISS, who both recommend that shareholders vote against all of Saba’s resolutions. We are also pleased to see Legal & General plc come out to publicly support the board and its intention to vote against all of Saba’s proposals.”

In a question-and-answer session with shareholders of Edinburgh Worldwide yesterday, Mr Simpson-Dent highlighted the increase in Saba’s stake from “slightly under 25%” in February last year to “just over 30%”, noting the US activist had been “buying during the course of 2025”.

Mr Simpson-Dent said: “That is now a bigger hurdle… We need even more people to turn out and vote.”

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Legal & General said earlier this week: “Saba Capital’s ask to appoint three nominees to replace the full existing board of Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust plc (EWIT) lacks sufficient detail regarding its future strategy for the trust, vital and financially material information for investors which would be expected, given the substantial restructure of the trust’s board and handover of power to the nominees being proposed… Given the potential conflict of interests between Saba, its nominees, and long-term investors, we are therefore again voting against all proposals at the forthcoming meeting, opting to keep the running of EWIT in the hands of the incumbent board at this time.”

It added: “Saba’s strategy appears broadly unchanged from its previous attempt at the shareholder meetings in February 2025. Given the importance of the vote to the future of EWIT, as well as the likely tight vote with much of the outcome heavily relying on retail investors placing their votes during what is a quiet time of the year, we have chosen to pre-declare our vote intentions and have also recalled any shares out on loan to be able to vote on behalf of our clients with the full voting power attached to our holdings.”