Boaz Weinstein is calling for the removal of the entire board of a tech-focused fund managed by Baillie Gifford, in a bid to reverse what the activist investor sees as “unprecedented” value destruction.
In a letter to the Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust’s board on Thursday, Weinstein — whose activist investment firm Saba Capital owns around 30% of shares in the trust — said the board has “objectively and categorically failed” to deliver the performance expected by shareholders.
EWIT’s portfolio comprises a global mix of smaller and emerging public and private companies focused on tech innovation and transformation, that target “significant disruptive growth potential,” according to the London-listed Baillie Gifford’s website.
Its holdings include Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, which makes up 8.4% of its portfolio.
Weinstein said EWIT’s net asset value is down 30.8% over the past five years, while its share price return has fallen 35%, having “massively underperformed” its self-selected benchmark, the FTSE All-Share Index, which is up 71.4% over the same period.
