Our voting intentions for 2026

Our investment stewardship activities are focussed on supporting the creation of long-term sustainable value for our clients. We believe that exercising voting rights is an important part of this process, and of being a good steward of our clients’ assets more generally.

Sometimes, we may choose to declare our vote intention ahead of meetings, to clarify our views to the market, clients and other companies to a particular issue, resolution or outcome. The decision to do so can be undertaken where we deem the vote to be particularly contentious, or as part of an engagement programme. 

Over 2026, we will be updating this blog on a regular basis to highlight our vote intentions in advance of certain shareholder meetings. For information about our voting actions and rationales, please visit our dedicated website: VDS Dashboard   

More information about our Investment Stewardship activities, policies and engagement activities can be found on our website: Investment stewardship & governance | LGIM Institutional   

Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust plc

Meeting: EGM, 20 January 2026

Summary of resolutions: 

Resolutions 1-6 – remove six incumbent directors (the full board)

Resolutions 7-9 – appoint three nominees to the board

L&G’s vote intention:  Against all resolutions (i.e., in line with management recommendation)  

Rationale:

Saba Capital’s ask to appoint three nominees to replace the full existing board of Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust plc (‘EWIT’) lacks sufficient detail regarding its future strategy for the trust, vital and financially material information for investors which would be expected, given the substantial restructure of the trust’s board and handover of power to the nominees being proposed under resolutions 7-9. 

The dissident (Saba Capital) appears to have taken on board shareholder concerns raised during its previous campaign and has provided some information on the nominees’ skills and rationale for their appointment and or nomination process, considering each candidate independent. 

However, the incumbent EWIT board equally appears to have been responsive to the contention of underperformance and has effectively managed to reduce its discount to Net Asset Value (‘NAV’). Given the potential conflict of interests between Saba, its nominees, and long-term investors, we are therefore again voting against all proposals at the forthcoming meeting, opting to keep the running of EWIT in the hands of the incumbent board at this time.

Saba Capital is a US hedge fund that started campaigning for change in 2024 at a number of UK investment trusts that were deemed by the activist to underperform, with high discounts to NAV amongst the concerns cited. These activist campaigns resulted in requisitioned shareholder meetings at seven investment trusts[1] in early 2025, with Saba buying into each with varying substantial holdings. 

Upon review of the recent proposals at EWIT’s requisitioned meeting on 20 January 2026, Saba’s strategy appears broadly unchanged from its previous attempt at the shareholder meetings in February 2025. For more background, including our vote decisions at the time, please see page 19 of our Q1 2025 Quarterly engagement report.

Given the importance of the vote to the future of EWIT, as well as the likely tight vote with much of the outcome heavily relying on retail investors placing their votes during what is a quiet time of the year, we have chosen to pre-declare our vote intentions and have also recalled any shares out on loan to be able to vote on behalf of our clients with the full voting power attached to our holdings.

 

More information on our investment stewardship activities can be found on our website: Investment stewardship & governance | LGIM Institutional     

 
[1] Baillie Gifford US Growth Trust (USA), CQS Natural Resources Growth & Income (CYN), Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust (EWI), European Smaller Companies Trust (ESCT), Henderson Opportunities Trust (HOT), Herald Investment Trust (HRI) and Keystone Positive Change Investment Trust (KPC).