Former Pensions Minister Ros Altmann warns retail investors, wealth managers, and regulators that the aggressive, short-term interests of the US hedge fund Saba Capital, which is attempting hostile takeovers like the one targeting Edinburgh Worldwide (EWIT), threaten the long-term, patient-capital model of the UK investment trust sector

A year ago, an aggressive US hedge fund launched the most audacious attack the UK’s investment trust sector has ever seen. Saba Capital built up stakes in seven UK-listed investment trusts which it dubbed the “miserable seven” and then tried to remove their boards and install its own nominees. This was, in effect, a hostile takeover attempt.

Saba was banking on the inertia of the high proportion of retail shareholders who make up the investment trust register, many of whom have traditionally not voted on corporate actions. Thankfully, galvanised by the media and the sheer self-interested audacity of the raider’s proposals, shareholders turned out in numbers to give Saba a bloody nose.

Some argue that

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