Yesterday (22 January), the trust completed the sale of its hydro portfolio for £44.1m.

The managed wind-down was backed by 99% of shareholders back in March 2024.

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Following the realisation of assets, the board has proposed a voluntary liquidation which will be voted on at a general meeting on 24 February.

If approved, TENT’s listing will be removed from the London Stock Exchange the following day.

The board has urged shareholders to back the resolution, stating that the liquidation represents the most cost and tax-efficient and timely method of returning capital to shareholders.

However, the board will look to implement a £42m tender offer to buy back shares if the liquidation resolution is not backed.

See also: Herald shareholders reject Saba proposals

Rosemary Boot, TENT chair, said: “Now all that remains is the mechanism to return the balance of the cash available back to you, our shareholders.

“It is very important that all shareholders make time to vote on this matter to ensure that we are able to do so in a timely and tax efficient manner. We are recommending that shareholders vote in favour of all the resolutions being proposed.

“In addition, in order to participate in the tender offer [which we are proposing as an alternative mechanism in case the liquidation is not approved], shareholders will also need to have submitted their tender forms [which will be conditional on the tender offer proceeding] in good time.”

65.1% of the total votes cast were against the eight requisitioned resolutions, which would have seen the trust’s board replaced by Saba’s nominees if passed.

A majority of the trust’s total shares with voting rights participated in the vote.

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In a stock exchange announcement, the board said only a further 59,221 non-Saba shares, representing just 0.15% of the votes cast, voted in favour of the resolution.

Saba’s shares represented 34.75% of the total votes cast.

Andrew Joy, chair of Herald Investment Trust, said the result provides a “clear, complete and incontrovertible rebuttal” of Saba’s proposals.

“The votes against Saba’s proposals were supported by independent proxy advisers including Glass Lewis and ISS. It is perfectly clear that the reason Saba’s proposals were rejected is that they were intended to lead to an outcome, namely Saba managing Herald, which the existing shareholders were simply not interested in.

“The reason shareholders invested, and continue to invest, in Herald is for long-term capital appreciation through investing in smaller technology companies, and they do not wish to be deprived of the opportunity to enjoy more of the same. They did not invest in Herald to become part of a short-term trading strategy.”

See also: BlackRock enters pact with Saba to ‘not seek to control or influence the board’

Following the vote, Saba’s Boaz Weinstein said he had been encouraged by the “thoughtful engagement” from fellow Herald shareholders in recent weeks.

“Over a brief period, our campaign has already enhanced value for shareholders and incited positive change at HRI – and elsewhere in the U.K. market – as evidenced by discounts to net asset value narrowing and numerous trusts announcing shareholder-friendly actions.”

He added that Saba would continue to pursue changes it believes are necessary to improve the trust.

“Saba remains committed to putting shareholders’ interests first, delivering returns for UK trust investors and ultimately rehabilitating this broken sector. We urge shareholders of the six other trusts at which we have requisitioned General Meetings to support Saba’s resolutions in order to set these trusts on the path to meaningful value creation.”

‘Victory for shareholder democracy

Reacting to the outcome, Richard Stone, chief executive of the Association of Investment Companies, said: “It’s very encouraging to see Herald shareholders turn out to vote in such numbers.

“This is a victory for shareholder democracy. There are six other trusts with votes just around the corner. It’s vital that all shareholders vote on the future of their investment trust. Shareholders need to act now.”

Voting on similar proposals for the six other trusts requisitioned by Saba will take place over the coming weeks.

Baillie Gifford US Growth and Keystone Positive Change will vote on 3 February, a day before CQS Natural Resources Growth & Income and Henderson Opportunities Trust.

The European Smaller Companies Trust meeting is scheduled for 5 February, before Edinburgh Worldwide shareholders vote on 14 February.

The agreement, announced yesterday by BPCE — Natixis IM’s parent company — and Generali, will see the launch of an asset manager with €1.9trn (£1.6trn) assets under management.

The parent companies will own 50% each of the combined business, with balanced governance and control rights.

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BPCE CEO Nicolas Namias will chair the board of the new entity, with Generali CEO Philippe Donnet as vice chair.

Meanwhile, current Generali Investments Holding CIO Woody Bradford would serve as CEO, with Natixis IM CEO Philippe Setbon as deputy CEO.

Subject to regulatory approval, the merger is expected to complete by early 2026.

Both parties cited critical scale, an enhanced offering in private assets to meet growing demand, and strengthened global distribution capabilities as some of the factors behind the deal.

See also: BlackRock enters pact with Saba to ‘not seek to control or influence the board’

The First Trust Vest U.S. Equity Buffer UCITS ETF – January will aim to match the price return of the S&P 500 up to a predetermined upside cap, while providing a 10% downside cushion through a built-in buffer mechanism.

The cap and buffer will be reset after a year in January 2026 to match market conditions. The ETF charges a 0.85% total expense ratio.

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Rupert Haddon, managing director at First Trust Global Portfolios, said: “FJAN represents the first ETF in our quarterly series of scheduled UCITS ETFs for our S&P 500 Target Outcome 10% buffer suite.

“In today’s volatile market environment, we believe FJAN offers a compelling solution for investors seeking exposure to leading S&P 500 companies while managing downside risk.”

He spent nine years at Allianz and has previously held sales roles at Canada Life Investments and Russell Investments.

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Artemis has also appointed Joe Wallace and Freddie Morrissey as sales support executives, who join from Janus Henderson and Muzinich, respectively. All three will be based in Artemis’s London office.

Couzens said: “[Artemis] has a very strong range of distinctive, actively managed funds in core areas for many clients.

“Concentration risk is a key concern of many investors, so we’re seeing a trend of mitigating that risk with active strategies that have proven themselves through various market cycles.”

He joins from Goldman Sachs Asset Management after 12 years, where he was most recently head of UK wealth distribution.

In the new role, Peters will focus on developing relationships with UK wealth managers and advisers.

Honor Solomon, CEO of EMEA at AllianceBernstein, said: “The UK continues to be one of the cornerstone markets in EMEA with a sophisticated client base with a growing interest across a wide range of products and solutions.

“In the current market environment, investors expect advice based on real investment expertise and broad-based knowledge. With Adam we have found an expert who has the right technical understanding as well as a consistent focus on distribution. I am delighted to welcome him to the team.”

The iShares AI Innovation Active UCITS ETF is a relatively concentrated “best ideas” portfolio of 20-40 stocks, targeting exposure across the entire AI value chain.

It follows the same investment strategy as the BGF AI Innovation fund, which launched in December 2024. The strategy, which charges a 0.73% Total Expense Ratio, will be managed by Tony Kim and Reid Menge.

The firm has also announced the launch of the iShares World Equity Factor Rotation UCITS ETF. The strategy aims to outperform the broad global equity market by tactically allocating to “historically rewarded” factors.

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The strategy will house between 150-250 holdings and charges a 0.30% TER. It is managed by Philip Hodges, PhD, BlackRock’s head of investments for factors and senior portfolio manager He Ren.

Jane Sloan, EMEA head of global product solutions at BlackRock, said: “With the addition of these funds, BlackRock is able to offer European investors active ETFs across both systematic and fundamental investment strategies.

“The launch of an active ETF as part of our existing AI suite provides clients the choice to tailor their exposure using the wrappers that work best for them.”

The Alger Focus Equity fund posted a return over the year of 56.3%, while another of its strategies, the $564m Alger American Asset Growth fund, was up 52.39%.

While surging share prices in Nvidia and other US tech stocks on the back of AI have been among the largest contributors to performance over the last year, the Alger American Asset Growth fund is one of the few actively-managed funds to beat the S&P 500 over a 10-year period.

See also: Yearsley: Financials ‘surprise winner’ of 2024

Speaking to Portfolio Adviser, Alger CEO and CIO Dan Chung says that the firm’s long-term performance is down to a lot more than just holding Nvidia.

Chung is a named manager alongside Dr Ankur Crawford and Patrick Kelly on Alger American Asset Growth, while Crawford and Kelly also run the Alger Focus Equity fund.

“Over a long-term period, its not about a single stock. It’s hundreds of decisions every year, and sometimes the decision is not to sell,” Chung says.

“We were early in Nvidia, buying in 2022. After 2023 saw a spectacular rise in the stock, a lot of people were saying that it must be time to sell, without carefully understanding the fundamentals of the business and how early on we are in the AI revolution. Our biggest and best decision was not to sell any of our Nvidia stock at that time, and it remains a top holding.

“Over the longer term, the success of the strategy has been a relentless focus on the depth and the quality of our team. 60 investment professionals for a firm of our size is actually quite a lot.

“We have a concentration of analysts that is probably 2-3 times more than a lot of our competitors.”

See also: Artemis merges European funds

The firm’s investment approach seeks to benefit from what Chung labels ‘positive dynamic change’. Reviewing the performance of the Alger American Asset Growth strategy over the last 10 years, in which it has posted a 430.8% return (as of 7 January), he says it has been a period of immense change.

“That period started with coming out of the great financial crisis, before entering into the most radical changes in American politics in decades.

“Our relentless focus on our philosophy of positive dynamic change – it means that culturally, as an investment firm, we’re very focused on embracing change. Don’t be afraid of disruption, innovation and volatility. Instead, we look at it as an opportunity to look for the positives that come out of these changes.

“The world is changing faster. There is more innovation and more disruption, which means winners and losers are created faster than they were in the past.

“It’s a highly competitive game. It requires people, but it also requires that right philosophy and mindset.”

European growth

The New York-based boutique is a growth equity specialist, and though it is better known back at home, the firm is looking to expand its offerings in Europe.

“We only have about 5% of our clients internationally — we have a two-person office here in London and a one-person office in Singapore, and we’re trying to grow in both regions.”

“We have been interested in talking with European asset managers in a similar situation, whether we can partner to help them grow in the US, and help Alger grow over here.

“There are some very obvious advantages for a European asset manager to consider partnering with a firm like Alger. We can offer significant US distribution. I’ve met many firms here that are actually quite large and don’t really have any US distribution, and we don’t have significant European distribution. The opportunity is pretty large.”

Industry M&A

The firm, founded in 1964 by Fred Alger, recently celebrated its 60th anniversary.

Industry M&A has seen many boutique firms in both the US and Europe swallowed up by larger asset managers.

However, Chung says that this trend has led to the unique selling points of larger asset managers becoming distorted, which can be exploited by existing boutiques.

“We’ve been taking advantage of the industry structure right now. In traditional asset management, you have a few global giants, and then you have a lot of very big companies just outside of the top 10.

“A lot of them have been created out of multiple mergers. The challenge there is that they don’t have the distribution scale of the largest names, and because they’ve been created out of mergers, a lot of them are like supermarkets. They offer everything, but they’ve lost a little bit of what they are best at.

“They all originally had something that they were really good at, whether it was bonds, equities or real estate, but now that they’ve become these large ‘supermarkets’ – they’re trying to compete with the Costco’s and the Tesco’s.

“They have a lot of challenges because it’s hard for them to grow as they’re large already. Their cultures are just within the team of the investing, and they’re not necessarily particularly known to be particularly at any one thing.”

The investment trust’s new annual dividend policy will see annual payouts of 6.25% of average net asset value, applied from the start of the 2025 financial year.

Based on NAV at the end of 2024, the dividend policy equates to a notional annual yield of 7.1%, based on its 222p share price.

See also: abrdn appoints Xavier Meyer as investments CEO in restructure

In a stock exchange announcement, the trust’s board said the move aims to narrow the trust’s 12% discount over time by broadening the appeal of its shares.

abrdn Asian Income has also introduced continuation votes, which will see shareholders vote on the trust’s future at three year intervals. The first vote will be held in 2028.

Meanwhile, an 6.78p interim dividend was announced for the fourth quarter, bringing the total for 2024 to 14.43p per ordinary share.

Ian Cadby, who chairs the trust’s board, said: “The board is delighted to deliver another year of increased dividends for our shareholders, reflecting our commitment to providing a meaningful and sustainable income.

“The Asia Pacific region continues to emerge as one of the most dynamic sources of dividends globally, offering a compelling blend of growth and income potential. With our enhanced dividend policy, we are poised to capitalise on these robust opportunities while adapting to shareholders’ needs in today’s high-interest rate environment.

“The introduction of a continuation vote further underscores our dedication to transparency and shareholder empowerment. We are confident in the long-term resilience and growth of the asset class, and staying true to our disciplined investment strategy should ensure strong and consistent returns for our investors.”

Consensus expectations for core inflation had been a 30 point increase. Headline CPI rose two percentage points to 2.9% in December, in line with expectations.

The increase was fuelled by energy prices, which accounted for over 40% of the monthly rise, while food prices also contributed.

The data release follows on from UK inflation figures for December, revealed earlier today, which revealed an unexpected drop in headline inflation to 2.5%.

See also: ‘Not out of the woods yet’: UK inflation falls by 10 basis points in December

Hetal Mehta, head of economic research at St. James’s Place, said the US inflation data would come as a relief to a wide variety of policymakers as global yields move lower.

“Core inflation surprised on the downside and there are tentative signs that inflation pressures may have stopped building after months of acceleration. But headline inflation did tick up and more evidence of inflation moderation will be necessary to get the Fed comfortable with multiple rate cuts this year.

“We don’t think these data change our view of a soft landing, with growth moderating to a trend-like pace. The Fed has the firepower to cut rates if things do start to deteriorate materially.

“Overall, the outlook is still quite muddy as so much will depend on what the Trump administration comes up with policy wise (especially tariffs and immigration).”

See also: The undervalued markets where managers are diversifying away from the US

With all eyes on the bond market in recent weeks, treasury yields have ticked lower in early trading following the release of the inflation print.

“The US Treasury market, and global rates markets, breathed a sigh of relief as the US CPI contained few surprise. In fact, the small miss on core CPI was cheered on by the market, pushing bond yields sharply lower. Headline CPI was 2.9% year-on year,  bang in line with consensus but higher than the 2.7% reading in November,” said Aegon Asset Management investment manager Colin Finlayson.

“The small miss on Core CPI at 3.2% vs 3.3% – led by an easing back in core services prices – was welcome relief to investors after a relentless sell off over the last month.  For a market living on its nerves, anything other than an upside surprise was a ‘win’.  

“After the softer inflation data in the UK this morning, this has offered a crumb of support to bond market ‘bulls’ and was a reminder that things other than fears over fiscal spending and term premia can drive Government bond markets.  For the Fed, this keeps the path in rates still to the downside and has brought forward the pricing of the next cut from December – as it was after the recent employment report – to July.”

Tina Adatia, head of fixed income, client portfolio management at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, added: “After recent red-hot data, today’s softer than expected core CPI reading should help cool fears of a reacceleration in inflation.

“While today’s release is likely insufficient to put a January rate cut back on the table, it strengthens the case that the Fed’s cutting cycle has not yet run its course. With labour market data remaining robust, however, the Fed has scope to be patient and more good inflation data will be required for the Fed to deliver further easing.”

In a quarterly funds under management update, the firm announced that they would not seek to raise any funds or offer any new shares with the move, which it expects to complete by the end of March.

CEO Andrea Montague (pictured) said the move would extend the opportunity to own the group’s ordinary shares to a broader group of investors.

Brooks Macdonald was founded in 1991 and listed on the AIM in 2005.

See also: Finsbury holds faith in Diageo and Fever-Tree despite drops

For the quarter to 31 December, the wealth manager’s FUM held steady at £17.9bn — the same level as the previous quarter.

The firm posted its strongest quarter for gross inflows for 18 months at £579m. Brooks suffered £151m net outflows in the quarter, however, though its MPS platform business gained £146m net inflows.

Investment performance contributed £200m towards total FUM.

Andrea Montague (pictured), CEO of Brooks Macdonald said: “This is Brooks Macdonald’s strongest quarter of gross inflows for 18 months, driven by the quality of our service, the scope of products tailored to meet clients’ needs, and our strong investment performance.

“While outflows remained elevated in the quarter, we are taking actions to improve asset retention as well as driving new business growth. Additionally, we continue to scale and enhance our financial planning expertise, including most recently through the acquisitions of LIFT, Lucas Fettes and CST Wealth Management.

“We remain focused on the execution of our strategy to reignite growth, serving our clients well, reaching more clients, and delivering value for our clients, shareholders and employees.”

Over the past year, the US hedge fund has built large positions in Baillie Gifford US Growth; CQS Natural Resources Growth & Income; Edinburgh Worldwide; European Smaller Companies; Henderson Opportunities trust; Herald and Keystone Positive Change investment trusts.

Votes will be held in the coming weeks over Saba’s proposal to replace the boards of each trust with its own directors.

See also: Home REIT publishes overdue 2023 results as board steps down

In a webinar held today (14 January), the Saba Capital founder said that if the firm is successful in replacing the current boards, Saba would seek to merge either some or all of the trusts into a new listed vehicle and invest back into UK assets.

“If we’re given the opportunity, we would launch this Saba product that I think the UK sorely needs, given how every institution has been a seller,” said Weinstein.

“We are the white knight of the UK market. Everyone is a seller, we are a buyer.”

He added: “We are here to not just buy your trusts, we are here to buy billions more and rehabilitate this broken set of trusts and what is – in some ways – a broken industry that hasn’t been able to grow.”

He also took aim at the current boards of the seven trusts, criticising them for poor performance and having a lack of ‘skin in the game’.

Speaking to investors, Weinstein added: “This discount is not some ephemeral thing. It is costing ‘mom and pop’ investors in these trusts enormous amounts of money year in and year out. We are on the same side as you. We are invested alongside of you.”

Meanwhile, he also claimed that Saba’s action has already generated returns for investors with discounts narrowing over the last month.

“My prediction is in the coming three months, many of the trusts that Saba holds will announce shareholder friendly actions that will make you additional hundreds of millions of pounds that you would not otherwise have made because they want to head us off at the pass.

“The entire UK closed-end fund space in general will see smaller discounts, especially if we win and we have this fire power to buy up UK trusts. We’re talking about 83.3% invested outside of the UK that we may bring up to 100% invested in the UK.”

He also criticised aspects of the coverage of Saba’s plans, claiming that information provided by trust boards to shareholders comparing the performance of Saba’s own funds was “blatantly incorrect”.

See also: Update: Saba plans full cash exit option for Herald

Board independence

A large part of the concerns over Saba’s plans has been over the independence of boards, given that Saba is aiming to replace each trust’s board with directors who would be affiliated with Saba.

However, he said that having just two board members would be a temporary measure, with independent NEDs being appointed later on.

Reacting to the webinar, Laith Khalaf, head of investment analysis, AJ Bell, said that if Saba wins some of the forthcoming votes, the investment trust industry may have to prepare for more of the same.

“Whatever the results of the upcoming shareholder votes it will be interesting to see if the arrival of Saba prompts investment trust boards to take more measures to address large discounts,” he said.

“Shareholders will soon get the final say on whether Saba carries the day or not. Investors in each trust need to carefully examine the options and arguments laid out before them, both by Saba and the existing board, before coming to a decision and voting their shares.

The first vote will take place on 22 January, where Herald investors will have the opportunity to either back Saba or the current board.