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Saba Capital Management LP on Monday again called for shareholders of Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust PLC to vote in favour of its resolutions ahead of its requisitioned general meeting. Saba had a 29% stake in the Edinburgh, Scotland-based fund as of October 15. The general meeting will be held on January 20. The requisition request from Saba calls for the removal of all six independent non-executive directors and their replacement with three US-based nominees selected by Saba. Among the directors Saba has called to be replaced is Chair Jonathan Simpson-Dent. Saba on Monday noted EWI’s failure to disclose the chair’s role as chief financial officer of HomeServe PLC and director of HomeServe Membership Ltd after the latter was fined £30.6 million for a breach of Financial Conduct Authority rules. It also criticised Simpson-Dent’s promotion to chair of EWI last year and his nearly-50% pay increase. Saba said this was unjustified given EWI’s 6.2% net asset value return during his membership on the board. Saba said its nominees ‘bring the right experience and objectivity to maximise long-term value creation for all shareholders.’ The requisition follows the open letter by Saba published in November, in which the company said it was ‘profoundly disappointed’ by EWI’s share price performance and that it ‘did not have faith in the current board’s ability to implement the necessary strategic changes.’ Saba reiterated its concerns in a presentation released on Monday. The New York-based fund said when it had initially requisitioned a general meeting, EWI ‘vigorously rejected our legitimate concerns and encouraged shareholders to dismiss them, imploring them to ’Protect Your Trust’ and promising to ’deliver the performance our shareholders rightly expect.’’ ‘Since then, however, the board has objectively and categorically failed to execute that job,’ Saba continued, adding that EWI’s NAV return of minus 30.6% and share price return of minus 35.6% ‘have massively underperformed the FTSE All-Share Index (73.7%) by more than 100 percentage points,’ over the past five years. Additionally, Saba on Monday outlined its opposition to EWI’s proposed merger with Baillie Gifford US Growth Trust PLC. ‘The proposal only provides a cash exit to 40% of shareholders at an undisclosed discount to NAV and does not include a path for consistent exit opportunities going forward,’ Saba said. It also criticised investment manager Baillie Gifford’s handling of EWI’s holding in Space Exploration Technologies Corp, or SpaceX. ‘EWI’s exposure to SpaceX is one of the main reasons many shareholders own the company. However, roughly two months ago, Baillie Gifford dumped about 1/3 of the SpaceX shares held in EWI and another trust,’ Saba said. ‘The sell-down was executed at a level massively lower than SpaceX’s reported $1.5 trillion IPO valuation and without a consultation of EWI investors,’ it continued. ‘Baillie Gifford only significantly trimmed its SpaceX stake in the two investment trusts it was hoping to merge, EWI and [Baillie Gifford US Growth Trust PLC], which would only benefit the manager,’ it said. EWI shares closed down 1.4% at 214.50 pence each on Monday in London. Baillie Gifford US closed flat at 292.00 pence. Copyright 2025 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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