In Alternative Views, Hedgeweek® goes behind closed doors with those in the know to get the latest on hedge funds. In this episode we speak to Jonathan Simpson-Dent, Chair of Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust (EWIT) ahead of the results of the vote on hedge fund Saba Capital’s proposals to remove and replace its board.
The outcome will be announced at a requisitioned general meeting on January 20 2026 of the Baillie Gifford-managed trust. Saba’s proposals involve replacing the existing board with three directors which they have put forward.
It follows a previous attempt to replace EWIT’s board in February last year, which was part of a campaign by the US-based hedge fund that targeted seven UK investment trusts.
Saba Founder Boaz Weinstein has pointed to EWIT’s history of trading at a discount to its net asset value to criticise the board’s performance. Simpson-Dent told Hedgeweek® that EWIT’s recent discount track record has been strong relative to its peer group, and has outperformed its index, the S&P Global Small Cap, by a factor of two. He added that in his view a small discount of 5-6%, which he says the trust has averaged over the last 12 months, is a “natural settling point”, given the proportion of its holdings in unlisted equities.
A Saba spokesperson told Hedgeweek® that “Recent modest gains and slight discount narrowing are insufficient to offset years of value erosion. Over the past five years, EWI’s NAV return (-30.6%) and share price return (-35.6%) lagged the FTSE All-Share Index Total Return (+73.7%) by more than 100 percentage points and the S&P Global SmallCap Price Index (+33.6%) by more than 60 percentage points.”
Saba has also criticised the board’s decision to reduce the size of its SpaceX position, the largest in the portfolio. The trust sold around a third of its holding in the rocket company in October.
This took place before an employee tender event in December which resulted in a significant uplift in its implied valuation to around $800bn, compared to $400bn from a share sale in July. SpaceX’s planned IPO later this year could see it reaching a valuation as high as $1.5tn.
Weinstein has argued that the SpaceX sale was against the interests of shareholders, and suggested that it was carried out to fund a tender for a planned merger between EWIT and Baillie Gifford US Growth Trust (USA), which Saba blocked in early December.
Simpson-Dent told Hedgeweek® that the manager had asked EWIT’s board to trim the SpaceX position, due to the share of the position in the trust’s overall net asset value. “As soon as one particular holding becomes over 10% of net asset value then that becomes a concentration risk,” he said, adding that the overall unlisted mix in the trust’s portfolio at the time was over its mandated limit of 25%, preventing EWIT from investing further in unlisted equities. “At that stage, just to be clear, we had no visibility on the order of magnitude of the next employee tender.”
He also denied claims there was a link between the proposed merger with Baillie Gifford US Growth Trust and the trimming of the SpaceX position, saying that the SpaceX transaction concluded in October, while the decision to settle on USA for the proposal “only crystallised in November”, after a process which involved speaking to numerous third parties.
Regarding the SpaceX sale, a Saba spokesperson said “As the Board itself acknowledges, SpaceX is the “cornerstone” of EWI’s portfolio – therefore, it is extremely odd that the Board chose not to ask shareholders about EWI’s concentration in SpaceX and instead wrongfully assumed shareholders would be pleased to see EWI reduce its stake in SpaceX.”
They added that “It is impossible to believe that Baillie Gifford and EWI had no idea that there would be an upward revaluation of SpaceX in December 2025. If they did not, then it reflects the incompetence of Baillie Gifford as manager,” and said “It is simply not credible that EWI and USA – two Baillie Gifford-managed investment trusts that planned to merge – decided to sell similar amounts of SpaceX at the same time without coordination.”
Simpson-Dent continued that Saba has not been clear about its intentions with EWIT, besides replacing the board. He believes that if successful, Saba would seek to apply pressure on its nominated directors to appoint itself as the manager, and seek to change the trust’s mandate towards a “discounted investment trust roll up vehicle”.
A Saba spokesperson said that “All decisions about the future of EWI will be made solely by the new, experienced and independent Board – not Saba. If elected, the new directors will have the sole mandate of maximising value for all shareholders, including evaluating the merits of all potential avenues to do so.”
