125 0 Kommentare Saba Launches Campaign to Improve the Boards of 10 Poorly Governed and Underperforming Closed-End Funds Managed by BlackRock

Saba Capital Management, L.P. (together with its affiliates, “Saba” or “we”) today announced that it has nominated seven highly qualified and independent candidates for election to the Boards of Trustees (the “Boards”) of 10 BlackRock closed-end funds (collectively, the “BlackRock Funds” or the “CEFs”) at their respective 2024 Annual Meetings of Shareholders (the “2024 Annual Meetings”).

Additionally, Saba filed a lawsuit today in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (the “Court”) against the BlackRock ESG Capital Allocation Term Trust (NYSE: ECAT), and all 10 incumbents to hold them accountable for adopting an illegal “Entrenchment Bylaw” that deprives shareholders of their right to elect directors annually. It is notable that these directors were already found to have violated the Investment Company Act by enacting a separate bylaw targeted at entrenching themselves in order to protect BlackRock from being held accountable by shareholders.

Boaz Weinstein, Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Saba, commented:

“BlackRock holds itself up as a leader in corporate governance despite the fact that many of its funds, including the CEFs, entrench compromised trustees, hinder shareholders’ rights and put up roadblocks when attempts are made to narrow persistent discounts to Net Asset Value (‘NAV’). Last year, a leading independent proxy advisory firm chastised BlackRock for its ‘abusive’ governance. Saba also won a lawsuit against BlackRock that should have ended its illegal efforts to deprive shareholders of their right to vote all of their shares. Instead of following the Court’s order, BlackRock is pursuing a baseless appeal. Clearly, our work is not done.

BlackRock acts as if federal law does not apply to its CEFs by blatantly ignoring the Investment Company Act. Shareholders are repeatedly deprived of their lawful voting rights, while directors avoid accountability for their own governance and performance failures.

Under the Entrenchment Bylaw, any share not voted in a contested election is counted as a vote for BlackRock. Dear reader, your eyes do not deceive you – yes, that’s how BlackRock believes elections ought to be decided when their directors are challenged.

The case for immediate change at the BlackRock Funds is clear. This is why we have filed a lawsuit to protect shareholder rights and nominated slates of highly qualified and independent candidates for election to the BlackRock Funds’ Boards at the 2024 Annual Meetings. Our nominees have a plan to enact changes that will return the funds to their full NAV – just like we have successfully done in dozens of prior campaigns. We believe that executing on our plan will deliver a staggering $1.3 billion gain from current prices across 10 CEFs for shareholders. Last year, I made a similar comment about the value trapped within two of the 10 CEFs at an industry conference where BlackRock executives were in the audience. From the dais, I challenged BlackRock to show me how the math wasn’t 100% accurate. I followed up with a similar offer on Twitter/X but BlackRock remains silent, because they know it’s true.

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