Fresh activist clash looms for Baillie Gifford US Growth trust
Shareholders have another vote to cast next month.
24th September 2026 09:20
by Dave Baxter from interactive investor
The fate of the Baillie Gifford US Growth Ord (LSE:USA) trust is once again up in the air as Saba Capital makes a fresh attempt to overthrow the board.
The US activist, which still owns some 30% of USA shares, has put forward proposals to eject the current the directors and put three individuals of its choice in place.
Having sought to overthrow the board back in 2024 and then opposed its re-election last year, Saba is making its third attempt to take control of the trust.
The trust’s annual general meeting will take place in London on 23 October. The voting deadline for ii customers is 5.59pm on 20 October.
Non-Saba shareholders have tended to overwhelmingly back the incumbent board in the past.
However a combination of low turnout from retail investors and any professional investors changing tack could well see Saba come out victorious, as it did with Baillie Gifford stablemate Edinburgh Worldwide Ord (LSE:EWI).
Saba has previously outlined intentions to use the funds it takes over to invest in discounted investment trusts, continuing its strategy of recent years and building an approach that has also seen it launch its own exchange-traded fund (ETF).
However there could be a wait until any such change comes.
Take Edinburgh Worldwide, which fell to Saba at the end of April but is yet to see any change of investment manager.
The case for USA
Saba has said it would urge the new board, if elected, to give shareholders a 100% cash exit either at, or near to, net asset value (NAV).
That would give investors a mild uplift versus the current discount of around 2%.
Baillie Gifford US Growth took a battering in 2022, with shareholders suffering a loss of almost 53%.
That has dealt a blow to return in recent years: the shares have returned around 13% in the five years to 22 September, a pitiful showing versus the 80.6% return from the S&P 500.
Performance has looked much stronger this year, with the trust buoyed by its early, pre-IPO backing of Space Exploration Technologies Corp Class A (NASDAQ:SPCX).
The shares had returned around 31% for 2026 so far at the time of writing.
USA shares also had a great 2024 and 2023, if also a slightly lacklustre 2025.
The trust's share price total returns in recent years | |||||||
Year | 2026 so far | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 |
| Baillie Gifford US Growth return (%) | 30.3 | 3 | 56 | 22.3 | -52.8 | -4.7 | 133.5 |
| S&P 500 index return (%) | 14.2 | 8.4 | 25.5 | 17.2 | -9.3 | 28.1 | 12.7 |
| Source: FE. Sterling returns given. Past performance is not a guide to future performance. | |||||||
In true Baillie Gifford style it has exposure to plenty of growth companies, with SpaceX accounting for 12.1% of the portfolio and the likes of NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA), Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), Shopify Inc Registered Shs -A- Subord Vtg (NASDAQ:SHOP) and Meta Platforms Inc Class A (NASDAQ:META) also among its top 10 positions.
Private companies also play a big role in the fund, with 26 unlisted holdings accounting for almost 29% of the portfolio. These include Anthropic and Databricks, among others.
From within that segment, the trust has recently enjoyed upwards revaluations for both Anthropic and Zipline.
Investors should also note that the 100% cash exit outlined by Saba might be difficult, given how much of the portfolio is sat in unlisted companies that cannot immediately be sold.
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