(Update) Four investment trusts run by BlackRock have announced Saba Capital will avoid activist action against them, a day after the two parties reached the end of a battle over closed-end funds in the US. 

This morning, BlackRock American Income (BRAI ), BlackRock Energy and Resources Income (BERI ), BlackRock Smaller Companies (BRSC ) and BlackRock World Mining (BRWM ) all announced an ‘agreement with Saba’, the US investment firm run by Boaz Weinstein which has launched a campaign to replace the boards of seven other investment trusts. 

The boards of the four BlackRock London-listed funds said Saba had ‘given a number of undertakings’ that essentially amount to the hedge fund promising not to take activist actions against them before 2027.

That includes not attempting to influence the boards and not requisitioning general meetings, which Weinstein did at his current seven targets shortly before Christmas.

Herald (HRI ) becomes the first such target to face a shareholder vote on its future today. Saba hopes to replace the board with its own fund manager Paul Kazarian and another nominee. 

The timing of the announcements is interesting, given it comes a day after Saba secured successes against two BlackRock closed-end funds (CEFs) – roughly equivalent to UK investment trusts – in the US. 

Following a long-running campaign against BlackRock – which precedes Saba’s action against the seven London-listed investment trusts – a pair of the asset management giant’s CEFs with a combined $3.6bn (£2.9bn) of assets agreed to tender 40% and 50% of their respective shares. Weinstein hailed the victory as ‘a monumental outcome for shareholders’.

In return, Saba agreed to halt wider activist measures against 48 other BlackRock CEFs it was targeting. 

The coordinated announcements from the four BlackRock trusts this morning suggest more concerted engagement with Saba and come in the context of long-running negotiations between the two parties, said industry sources. 

Although, they are described as ‘separate’ and independent agreements.

In each case the statements read: ‘The board notes that certain BlackRock closed-end funds in the US and UK have entered into separate agreements with Saba, each of which was negotiated on behalf of the applicable fund and approved by such fund’s board of directors.’

Citywire understands that the four trusts do not form part of the ‘50 BlackRock funds’ where Saba had already agreed to halt its activist actions, as announced in the US yesterday. 

The largest of the four is £961m BlackRock World Mining, run by lead manager Evy Hambro. 

The announcements also stated that Saba did not own any of the trusts’ shares, with the exception of BRSC. 

The US firm previously disclosed a 10% position in the £619m UK small cap trust back in December 2023, according to broker Deutsche Numis. 

BlackRock runs 10 London-listed investment companies. The other six, including £498m BlackRock Throgmorton (THRG ), have not made announcements about an agreement being reached with Saba.

BlackRock declined to comment further.