Shareholders at Baillie Gifford US Growth  have voted to reject Saba’s proposals for the trust by 65.6% to 34.4%. Excluding the shares voted by Saba, approximately 98.5% of the votes cast were against the requisitioned resolutions.

The turnout (the percentage of eligible shares that were voted) was 78.4%, not that far shy of that at Herald which has more institutional shareholders.

[Following on from the emphatic rejection of Saba’s proposals at the Herald EGM on 22 January, this gives us hope that Saba will lose all of these votes. It is too late to vote at the remaining meetings this week, but if you are shareholder in Edinburgh Worldwide, there may still be time to make your voice heard. In the wake of this, we expect that the sentiment will turn from relief to anger at the disruption that this has caused and the considerable sums that have had to be spent to ward off the attack. One positive result may be that investors are better able and more likely to vote at company meetings in future. Real change seems to be happening at some platforms and a change of company law to enforce shareholders’ rights may not be far behind.]

Chair Tom Burnet said “Faced with the threat to their investment posed by Saba’s self-serving and destructive proposals, shareholders have mobilised and acted decisively to protect their investment. The result is unambiguous and conclusive.

We would like to thank shareholders for their support at this important moment for the company. We are delighted, in particular, by the number of retail shareholders who have voted and played a key role in this positive outcome and encourage them to continue to make their voices heard.

Thanks to our patient strategy of investing in exceptional US growth companies, public and private, the company has achieved its objective of delivering above average long-term returns for our shareholders. Since IPO in March 2018, the company has been one of the best-performing funds globally when measured against all US equity open-ended funds and ETFs.

Following the decisive result at the requisitioned general meeting, we look forward to executing our strategy in a supportive macro environment and continuing to engage with all our shareholders.”

USA : Saba loses Baillie Gifford US Growth by significant margin