Saba defeated again in Henderson Opportunities vote
Investors in Henderson Opportunities Trust (HOT ) have voted against US activist Saba Capital’s proposals to oust its board and take control of the trust.
Following a general meeting this morning, Henderson Opportunities announced that 65.4% of votes went against Saba’s proposals.
Among those casting a vote, shareholders voted around 65% to 35% against a plan to ditch current chair Wendy Colquhoun and three other directors.
Meanwhile, the hedge fund’s proposals to install Saba portfolio manager Paul Kazarian and Simon Reeve, a US wealth management industry veteran, as directors were rejected by a similarly wide margin.
Around 10m votes, or 34%, of the votes cast, were in Saba’s favour. The vast majority of these came from the US hedge fund.
The board said Saba had accounted for 9.8m votes, representing 33.6% of the votes cast, which equates to 24.7% of the total voting rights. This is lower than Saba’s latest publicly disclosed stake of 29.1%.
Stripping out Saba, the board said only a further 284,248 votes, representing just 0.98% of the votes cast, had voted in favour of the requisitioned resolutions.
The Henderson Opportunities vote marks the fourth that Saba has lost so far, as part of its campaign against seven targets in the sector.
CQS Natural Resources Growth and Income (CYN ) also faces a vote on its future today, with the result expected shortly.
Henderson Opportunities, which invests in UK equities, is managed by Janus Henderson’s James Henderson and Laura Foll. The trust’s shares are up 15.9% over the past 12 months, which compares to a 16.9% gain by the average manager in the AIC’s UK all companies sector.
Over the past three years it has disappointed with a 10.9% share price fall, which compares to a 9.7% return by the sector average. It currently trades on a 2.8% discount to net asset value (NAV).
HOT’s alternative plan
News of Saba’s defeat comes after Henderson Opportunities put forward a ‘scheme of reconstruction’ on Monday. This gives shareholders the option to either roll over their investment at NAV into the open-ended Janus Henderson UK Equity Income & Growth fund, which is run by the same team, or to receive a full or partial cash exit at NAV.
The board was keen to point out that rolling over the investment into the open-ended fund would shield shareholders from triggering a potential taxable capital gain. Henderson Opportunities also noted that shareholders will not take a hit from the dealing costs that would be incurred if the entire portfolio is wound up.