Your vote counts: investment trust AGMs in February 2025

Boaz Weinstein, pictured above, runs Saba Capital. Credit: Gonzalo Marroquin/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images.

Investment company meetings kick up a gear in February, thanks in part to the activist US hedge fund Saba Capital Management, with six of its seven requisitioned general meetings taking place within the first two weeks of the month.

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Outside those meetings, there are notable AGMs at investment trusts within the European, UK and global sectors, which we round up below.

Saba meetings

Saba’s attempts to oust the boards of seven investment trusts and elect its own choice of directors gathers pace in February. It will be hoping for some success this month after shareholders in Herald Ord (LSE:HRI)voted resoundingly to reject Saba’s advances.

Two of Saba’s votes, at Keystone Positive Change Investment Ord (LSE:KPC) and Baillie Gifford US Growth Ord (LSE:USA), take place on 3 February, with two more, Henderson Opportunities Ord (LSE:HOT) and CQS Natural Resources G&I Ord (LSE:CYN), following the next day, and another, The European Smaller Companies Trust PLC (LSE:ESCT), coming on 5 February. The final vote, Edinburgh Worldwide Ord (LSE:EWI), takes place nine days later, on 14 February, which happens to coincide with EWI’s AGM, which will occur directly after the vote.

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Schroder UK Mid Cap

Alongside voting to re-elect the board of directors, Schroder UK Mid Cap Ord (LSE:SCP) will get to vote to approve the trust’s final dividend of 15.5p per share, which would bring the total dividend paid for the financial year to 21.5p per share. This gives a prospective yield of 3.5% at the time of writing. From a portfolio of medium-sized UK companies, that’s not a bad level of dividend income.

SCP is up around 25% from its October 2023 lows, but remains a similar percentage down from its record high hit in late 2021.

Managers Jean Roche and Andy Brough favour companies operating in a market niche with strong pricing power as well as placing high value on quality management teams, sustainable business models and robust balance sheets. The duo run a high-conviction portfolio of around 40 to 50 names.

Bankers

Bankers Ord (LSE:BNKR) shareholders will also vote to re-elect their directors and to approve the final dividend of 0.672p per share, which when combined with the three other quarterly dividends of the same amount add up to a 2.688p per share dividend, representing a yield of 2.2%.

The dividend will represent yet another period of dividend growth for Bankers, which is recognised as a dividend hero by the Association of Investment Companies (AIC), having currently increased its dividend for 57 consecutive years.

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Managed by Janus Henderson’s Alex Crooke, Bankers is a global equity trust that bids to deliver capital growth and inflation-beating income over the long term, with its capital growth objective measured by its performance against the FTSE World Index and its dividend growth measured versus the UK consumer prices index.

Top holdings within the fund include five of the so-called Magnificent Seven US tech stocks (Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT), Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), Alphabet Inc Class A (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Meta Platforms Inc Class A (NASDAQ:META)) alongside the payment facilitators Visa Inc Class A (NYSE:V) and American Express Co (NYSE:AXP).

*denotes Saba requisitioned general meeting.