Shareholders in Impax Environmental Markets (IEM) have overwhelmingly approved its proposed exit tender offer with 99.97% of those voting at the general meeting today in favour of the proposal, which will now go ahead.

The turnout was surprisingly low for such an important question, with just 46.1% of IEM’s shares voted. That suggests to us that Saba Capital, the hostile activist hedge fund with a 21% stake, did not vote.

The Association of Investment Companies’ chief executive Richard Stone is rightly infuriated that “this is likely to result in the loss of a unique investment trust which nearly nine in ten shareholders backed in a continuation vote last year.” Unfortunately, any changes by the Financial Conduct Authority to listing rules to protect listed funds will be too late to help IEM, he said.

We will have to wait until next Tuesday, 21 April, to find out how many shares have been tendered (the closing vote for tender offers is 1pm on Friday, tomorrow, so if you haven’t already made an election, it is probably too late now). The big question will be: did Saba tender some or all of its shares?

Cash for tendered shares should hit bank accounts by the end of May.

It feels inevitable to us that there will be some shares that were not tendered and the fate of those shareholders and the rump trust is, as yet, unknown. Will Saba have retained a big enough stake to control its future? Will it have retained too many shares, creating issues around US control or too little a free float (both of which could cause serious problems)? Will a much smaller IEM soldier on with the same remit? Watch this space!

IEM shares fell 3.7% to 432.4p on Thursday, widening their discount to net asset value to 9%.