Saba has suffered another technical hiccup, with its request for a shareholder meeting at Schroder UK Mid Cap (SCP ) deemed invalid. 

The £212m trust, run by Jean Roche and Andy Brough, is one of four listed funds targeted by US activist Saba, which two weeks ago called for the strategies to be made open-ended.

However, the board of the Schroders trust announced today that the requisition notice it received – demanding an investor meeting to vote on the issue – has been deemed ‘invalid’. That is because the nominee through which Saba controls its stakes was ‘not the registered holder of sufficient shares’ on the day.

The board, led by chair Harry Morley, added that it believes New York-based hedge fund Saba, led by Boaz Weinstein, does now control enough shares to give it the right to call a shareholder meeting. 

The misstep echoes a similar issue when Saba requisitioned a meeting in December at Edinburgh Worldwide (EWI ), one of the initial seven targets in Saba’s campaign to overhaul UK investment trusts. 

The subsequent proposals to ‘open-end’ Schroder UK Mid Cap and three other trusts represent the second stage of its campaign. The step would allow Saba and other shareholders to realise their investment at the same value as the underlying portfolios, mitigating the issue investment trusts can face of trading at discounts to net asset value.