Catch up on Baillie Gifford’s latest investment trust news
Trust votes
Three Baillie Gifford-managed investment trusts – US Growth, Keystone Positive Change and Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust (EWIT) – have held ‘requisitioned’ general meetings at which shareholders voted on the future management and governance of the trusts.
The votes were prompted by a bid from the hedge fund Saba Capital Management to replace the trusts’ independent boards, take control of their assets and change their investment mandates. In all three ballots, held between 3 and 14 February, an overwhelming majority of shareholders voted to oppose Saba’s propositions.
James Budden, head of global marketing at Baillie Gifford, said: “These votes are a strong repudiation of Saba’s proposals by a clear majority of shareholders.
“Such engagement is crucial to the health of the investment trust sector. Hopefully the number of votes cast is a sign that shareholder participation can be more common in the future.”
For more information about the results of the votes and their impact on shareholders, please visit the Baillie Gifford website and see each of the trusts’ pages for the latest information.
Celebrating SAINTS
Last year, The Scottish American Investment Company (SAINTS) marked an unbroken 50 years of increasing its annual dividend payouts to shareholders.
Baillie Gifford has managed the income-and-growth trust since 2004. Hear manager James Dow mark this milestone and share his latest investment ideas at bailliegifford.com/saints50
And if you want to discover how, in 1873, an Edinburgh lawyer conceived of an ingenious way to give ordinary shareholders access to the growth offered by the US and other 19th century emerging markets, read SAINTS – The First 150 Years. We have a limited number of copies of this illustrated account of the Trust’s origins and achievements to give away on a first-come-first-served basis. You can request a copy at enquiries@bailliegifford.com
Scan the horizon
Companies driving global transformation aren’t always what you’d suppose, or based where you’d expect. Disruption Week: new horizons of growth presents the latest in our annual series of filmed conversations and articles in which four Baillie Gifford investment managers reveal the companies that excite them the most and why.
Participants include globe-trotting emerging market specialist Ben Durrant, who discusses a Chinese challenger to Starbucks and a Brazilian company making aviation fuel from sugar cane waste.
Alexander Nicolier cites US firms Cosm, whose giant screens are reinventing mass entertainment, and Epic Games in a discussion exploring the companies thriving while staying private.
Learn about how these and other firms are benefiting from big economic shifts and using game-changing technologies in pursuit of outstanding growth. Go to bailliegifford.com/disruptionweek to discover more.
Cosm’s 180-degree LED dome screens show hyper-realistic live sports and entertainment, offering the thrill of ‘shared reality’ in comfortable social settings
Tales from the transformers
Meet the entrepreneur inspired by a family illness to build one of the world’s largest diagnostic data libraries, helping doctors provide patients with the right treatments at the right times.
Find out how an engineer and a medical researcher combined forces – and plastic pipes from a local hardware store – to manufacture industrial chemicals more sustainably.
Tempus AI and Solugen’s founders are among the visionary leaders who share their stories with Scottish Mortgage’s investment managers, Tom Slater and Lawrence Burns, in Series 3 of the Invest in Progress podcast.
Other guests include the bosses of the cryptocurrency platform Blockchain.com, online banking giant Nubank and self-driving software and hardware specialist Horizon Robotics.
To listen to the new episodes and explore the show’s archive, visit linktr.ee/InvestInProgress
Important information
The views expressed in this article should not be considered as advice or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a particular investment. The article contains information and opinion on investments that does not constitute independent investment research, and is therefore not subject to the protections afforded to independent research.
Some of the views expressed are not necessarily those of Baillie Gifford. Investment markets and conditions can change rapidly, therefore the views expressed should not be taken as statements of fact nor should reliance be placed on them when making investment decisions.
Baillie Gifford & Co Limited is wholly owned by Baillie Gifford & Co. Both companies are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and are based at: Calton Square, 1 Greenside Row, Edinburgh EH1 3AN.
The investment trusts managed by Baillie Gifford & Co Limited are listed on the London Stock Exchange and are not authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
A Key Information Document is available by visiting bailliegifford.com
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