SpaceX-backer urges ministers to overhaul rules amid Saba raid

An investment trust which holds shares in Elon Musk's SpaceX and which is under siege from an American activist is urging ministers to plead for an overhaul of the City rulebook amid a deluge of campaigns to unseat boards.

Sky News has learnt that Tom Burnet, who chairs the Baillie Gifford US Growth Trust, has written to Douglas Alexander, the Scottish secretary, and City minister Lucy Rigby just over two weeks before shareholders are due to vote on its future.

His letter comes amid a fierce battle with Saba, the activist hedge fund run by Boaz Weinstein, which has amassed a near-30% stake in the trust.

Saba has accused the Baillie Gifford trust of chronic underperformance and is seeking to install three of its nominees onto its board at a shareholder meeting on October 23.

The Baillie Gifford trust, which also holds shares in Anthropic, OpenAI and Stripe, the payments giant, is one of dozens which have been targeted by Saba over the last 18 months.

Mr Weinstein claimed in a newspaper interview at the weekend that his interventions had produced more than £600m of profits for investors in the companies in which it had built stakes.

But in his letter to ministers - a copy of which has been seen by Sky News - Mr Burnet retorted: "Whatever the merits of that claim, neither it nor its proposal for a cash exit for shareholders has been subject to the scrutiny a board's own statements must undergo."

He called on the government to introduce urgent reforms which would include holding activists to the same standards of information disclosure as the boards of listed companies.

"Directors of listed companies are rightly required to ensure that what they tell shareholders and the market is fair, accurate and not misleading, and to provide the necessary information which is material to an investor for making an informed assessment in relation to their investment," he wrote.

"A shareholder campaigning to take control of the same company - addressing the same investors, through the media and directly, and asking for their votes - faces no equivalent obligations."

He also wants ministers to make it easier for investors who hold shares through intermediaries can vote more easily.

Mr Burnet said the campaign against the Baillie Gifford trust represented a "threat" to it that was also confronting the wider UK investment trust industry.

"Investment trusts are one of Britain's great contributions to finance, and they have contributed greatly to the prosperity of ordinary savers."

He claimed that the Baillie Gifford US Growth Trust was "a fine modern example" of this.

"Since its IPO in 2018, it has given UK investors - many of them individuals saving through ISAs, pensions and platforms - access to exceptional American growth companies, both public and private, for a low ongoing charge of 0.7% and no performance fee," he wrote.

"Its annualised net asset value total return of 16.7% since launch places it in the top 10% of all UK-listed investment companies as at 31 August 2026.

"This is exactly the kind of opportunity the Government would like more people to share in."

In its notice to shareholders to add votes on its board nominees to the trust's AGM, Saba said it had underperformed the S&P 500 Index on both a price and net asset value return basis over a five-year period.

"During that time, [the trust's] shareholders have suffered under a board that has repeatedly put Baillie Gifford's interests first," Saba said in August.

It declined to comment further on Wednesday.

The battle is one of many which have unfolded since Mr Weinstein began laying siege to investment trust boardrooms.

"I'm not Robin Hood," he told The Sunday Times.

"I didn't come here to help the British pensioner, but it gives me great pleasure both in the US and the UK that if I can [profit on closing the discount] for my investors, there is a secondary good."

In his letter to ministers, Mr Burnet said that none of Saba's trio of nominees was independent, and suggested that a second New York-based hedge fund, Sessa Capital, which has built a stake of 7.7% in the company would be supporting Saba's campaign.

"With almost 30% of the company's shares, Saba is likely to prevail at our AGM unless more than 38% of all other shares in issue are voted against it," he wrote.

"A determined minority shareholder can take control of a company that the majority of its other shareholders want to keep.

"This is an issue that goes well beyond Baillie Gifford US Growth Trust and threatens the integrity of the broader UK investment trust sector and UK public equity markets.

"The government's ambitions for London's capital markets - including encouraging more growth-orientated companies to list here and democratising access to investing - depend on confidence that ordinary savers' interests will not be overridden by minority shareholders willing to abuse voting dynamics.

"Without swift action, more investment trusts will fall prey to such tactics, and the ordinary savers who rely on them will be the ones who suffer."

(c) Sky News 2026: SpaceX-backer urges ministers to overhaul rules amid Saba raid