Your vote counts: investment trust AGMs in April 2026

In times of stock market turbulence, the best course of action, in our view, is to take a beat, do nothing and consider all the options available to you, before rushing in and pressing either the “buy” or “sell”buttons.

As oil market ructions, talk of recession, stagflation predictions and Truth Social posts clutter your social media feed/email inbox/morning newspapers (delete as applicable), perhaps the best thing to do is check whether any of the investment trusts you hold are putting on annual general meetings (AGMs) – or big, corporate actions – and engaging with them.

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Below, we have highlighted some of the key votes going on during the month below.

Going global

A quartet of global investment trusts are on the slate to host AGMs in April, with all four having had differing fortunes in terms of performance over the past 12 months.

While Murray International Ord (LSE:MYI) shareholders will be pleased with their circa 30% return, helped by a circa 30% weighting to Asia and Latin America, Scottish American Ord (LSE:SAIN) shareholders will be less happy with essentially flat returns.

MYI has benefited from management’s value-focused approach, while SAIN’s quality style has very much fallen out of favour, potentially throwing up an interesting opportunity for long-term investors.

• The funds and investment trusts treading a different path
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Somewhere in the middle, F&C Investment Trust Ord (LSE:FCIT) and Alliance Witan Ord (LSE:ALW) shareholders have had to settle for returns of circa 11.5% and 3% respectively.

There are no surprise votes on the docket for any of those trusts’ shareholders, with the re-election of the board of directors and the reiterating of the boards’ authorities to either repurchase or (probably most likely in the case of MYI, which was trading at a premium rating until the Middle East conflict started), issue shares.

Schroder Asian Total Return

Another trust with impressive recent returns is Schroder Asian Total Return Inv. Company (LSE:ATR), where the share price has risen circa 28% over the past 12 months even despite a hit from the conflict in the Middle East.

ATR, which was promoted to the FTSE 250 in October, had seen its discount narrow considerably since this time last year, from circa 8% turning into a slight premium in early March, although current volatility has knocked that back out to a circa 4% discount once more.

The trust combines bottom-up stock selection with a bottom-down overlay that considers where risks could emerge which, if identified, can be hedged by using derivatives such as index futures and options. This provides some downside protection to the overall portfolio.

Again, standard voting will take place on re-electing the board of directors and providing the authority to buyback or issue shares through the financial year.

Corporate actions

Then, we come to the monthly round-up of shenanigans at trusts being targeted by activist Saba, and April doesn’t disappoint on that front.

The New York-based hedge fund has forced both Impax Environmental Markets Ord (LSE:IEM) and Edinburgh Worldwide Ord (LSE:EWI) to attempt to press the self-destruct button. The pair have proposed 100% tender offers, with the two sets of boards recommending that shareholders vote to take up the offer and flee the vehicles before Saba can get their mitts on their cash.

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The tender offers follow Saba’s third attempt at getting EWI’s board removed and replaced with three alternative directors who, we understand, would likely change management and put Saba themselves in control of the mandate.

On the IEM side, the trust had proposed a continuation tender offer, to which Saba did not respond, effectively torpedoing the resolution as the vote needed 70% of votes for and Saba holds more than 30% of voting rights.

As a consequence, IEM’s board has proposed an exit tender offer, which only needs a simple majority to pass and will, again, allow shareholders to tender all their shares and get out before anything untoward happens to the trust.

In surprisingly un-Saba-related news, shareholders in Augmentum Fintech Ord (LSE:AUGM), the investor in private, financial technology companies, will vote on whether to approve the acquisition of the company by the Norwegian buyout group Verdane for £185.7 million.

The bid came in at a 30% discount to the net asset value, but a 27% premium to the share price, at the time of the offer in February.