Doceo Fund Monitor

Fund Monitor

Herald’s (HRI) independent shareholders resoundingly reject Saba’s proposals. Message to the other six funds in the sights of the activist investor – mobilise shareholders to vote and Saba can be seen off. Elsewhere, a Supermarket Income REIT (SUPR) Director goes bargain-hunting, while CC Japan Income & Growth (CCJI) cuts its fees.

By Frank Buhagiar

Herald shareholders resoundingly reject Saba

One down six to go after Herald (HRI) became the first of the seven trusts targeted by Saba Capital to see off the activist’s attempts to gain control of the fund and change its mandate from an investor in global tech to an investor in other investment trusts. And it was an outright rejection too. As per HRI’s press release, 65.10% of total votes cast were against Saba’s Requisitioned Resolutions. What’s more “Excluding the votes Saba cast in favour of their own Requisitioned Resolutions (being 14.1m votes, representing approximately 34.75% of the votes cast), only a further 59,221 Shares, representing just 0.15% of the votes cast, voted in favour of the Requisitioned Resolutions. This is a damning indictment of Saba’s proposals by the Company’s non-Saba Shareholders.”

As for the remaining six funds that are due to hold their general meetings in the coming weeks, no time to ease off the gas. One of the reasons why HRI was able to fend off Saba was thanks to a huge turnout by shareholders – over 80%. As Numis notes “with 99.8% of non-Saba votes being against the resolutions,” this represents “a pretty embarrassing rebuttal from independent shareholders for Saba Capital.” Although the broker notes “Saba remains a c.29% shareholder which still leaves the Board with a problem to solve.”

Supermarket Income REIT insider goes shopping

Supermarket Income REIT (SUPR) announced Non-executive Director, Roger Blundell acquired 100,000 SUPR Ordinary Shares on 16 January 2025 at a price of 69.9p a share, equating to an investment of £69,900. That’s Blundell first purchase of the fund’s shares but with the share price trading at a 28% discount to net assets, be interesting to see if he goes back for more.

CC Japan Income & Growth cuts fees

CC Japan Income & Growth (CCJI) unveiled a reduction in fees alongside its final results. Out goes the old structure of a flat fee of 0.75% per annum on net assets. In comes a new one calculated on a tiered basis of 0.75% per annum on the first £300m of net assets and 0.60% on net assets in excess of £300m. This way shareholders will be able to “share in the benefits of scale”. According to the press release, it also shows that the fund “demonstrably represents value for money”.