Edinburgh Worldwide warns of knife-edge vote towards US raider Boaz Weinstein

The chairman of investment trust Edinburgh Worldwide has warned investors that its future is on a knife-edge as a showdown looms with US hedge fund vulture Boaz Weinstein.

Jonathan Simpson-Dent has told The Mail on Sunday a vote to oust the trust’s entire board tabled by Weinstein’s firm Saba Capital is expected to be ‘really close’ when the results are announced at a meeting set for January 20.

He warned that voting deadlines for some shareholders could be as early as tomorrow, while major platforms – such as Fidelity and Hargreaves Lansdown – will close voting on Wednesday, followed by AJ Bell and Interactive Investor a day later.

‘We’ve got 24,000 shareholders that own half the trust, so we have to mobilise a lot of people to overcome Saba,’ Simpson-Dent said. ‘It’s going to be tight.’

Just before Christmas Weinstein announced that Saba, which is the trust’s largest shareholder with more than 30 per cent, had tabled motions to remove all six of its directors and replace them with three of its own nominees.

It is the US hedge fund’s second attempt to unseat the board after a bid in February was defeated after overwhelming opposition from other shareholders.

Weinstein targeted Edinburgh Worldwide as part of a wider campaign by Saba to oust the boards of seven London-listed trusts, all of which were voted down last year.

On the attack: A vote to oust the trust’s entire board tabled by Boaz Weinstein’s firm Saba Capital is expected to be ‘really close’

The imminent deadline follows a fierce war of words between Saba and Edinburgh Worldwide, which Simpson-Dent described as ‘horribly personal’.

Weinstein has demanded answers over Edinburgh Worldwide’s decision last year to sell down its stake in Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which he has described as the ‘crown jewel’ in the trust’s portfolio.

Weinstein said the decision was ‘self-evidently unacceptable’ and was done ‘without consulting shareholders’.

Edinburgh Worldwide has countered this by accusing Weinstein of making ‘numerous inaccurate statements’ designed to ‘mislead shareholders’ as part of an ‘aggressive campaign’ by Saba to seize control of the trust ‘on the cheap’.

It was bolstered in its fightback last week when one of its major institutional investors Legal & General said it would vote against Saba’s plans.

Top shareholder advisory groups ISS and Glass Lewis have also recommended investors oppose Weinstein’s proposals.