In the first six votes for board takeovers proposed by Saba, between 69% and 76% of shares held on the interactive investor (ii) platform were voted on following a push by the industry to reach retail investors.
Only Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust has yet to have its voting results, with the meeting on 14 February. Those voting through ii must make their decision by 10 February. As of 5 February, 56% of shares on the ii platform had been voted for the trust, and 46% of accounts.
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Kyle Caldwell, funds and investment education editor at interactive investor, said: “There were fears among the investment trust industry that retail investors would not stand up and be counted. However, our customers have debunked those concerns and have shown up in high numbers to cast their votes.
“When shareholders are being asked to vote on a big issue – they turn up in big numbers. If successful, Saba’s longer-term plan was to potentially merge some of the trusts to form a new strategy of purchasing other discounted trusts.”
By another metric, a majority of accounts also voted on the Saba proposals, ranging between 53% for the Baillie Gifford US Growth trust to 67% for the European Smaller Companies Trust.
In general, ii has seen an increase in share voting across the past three years. In 2024, 30% of shares were voted across the platform, compared to 27% in 2023 and 22% in 2022.
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“Of course, there is always room for improvement, but this is certainly a step in the right direction, which has been helped by our efforts to make voting as easy as possible – including a couple of years ago making the ability to vote the default setting, although customers can still opt out if they wish,” Caldwell said.