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In the world of U.K. quoted companies, investment trusts are frequently disparaged as a sleepy backwater, a dull corner of the market offering little excitement.
That is despite the fact that, with a combined stock market valuation of around £265 billion ($357 billion), U.K. investment trusts are the world’s biggest market in closed end funds, as they are known in the U.S.
But there is no debate at present; the sector is currently very newsy because of one individual, the U.S. activist investor Boaz Weinstein, founder and chief investment officer of the hedge fund Saba Capital.
He electrified the world of investment trusts — known in some parts of Europe as SICAVs (Société d’Investissement à Capital Variable, a French expression which translates to investment company with variable capital) — when, in December 2024, he launched a campaign to oust the boards of seven investment trusts.
