American activist Boaz Weinstein wants to be a “white knight” in the UK stock market

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US hedge fund manager Boaz Weinstein has said he wants to be a “whitewash” for UK investors and the London stock market by buying into the £266bn investment trust sector.

The founder of Saba Capital in New York campaigns to take seven UK investment trusts. Weinstein told the Financial Times that if he was successful, he would merge their assets and sell stocks with expensive US funds to buy shares in UK companies and trusts. some of the UK currencies.

“We are a white soldier,” Weinstein that said. “We are not Americans exporting to the US, we are here to help small investors in the UK.

“If we are successful and become a fund manager, US stocks like Tesla can be sold and UK stocks will be bought.”

Investment trust shares have suffered from the general depression on the London market: several companies have left the market or moved their primary listing from the UK to the US, and there have been IPOs few.

According to the trade body the Association of Investment Companies, the average decline in the share price to the value of UK investment properties is 15.4 per cent – the biggest since the 2008 financial crisis.

Weinstein said Saba Capital will offer a “new product . . . A UK investment trust will hold other investment trusts. So it will create demand worth billions of pounds. ”

His comments provide further insight into Saba’s plans for the trusts, which the firm is trying to navigate in one of the biggest conflicts the 150-year-old sector has faced. The idea is to combine the trusts into a new vehicle and use the combined assets to buy other trusts, if the shareholders agree.

The trusts are currently managed by Baillie Gifford, Janus Henderson, Manulife and Herald Investment Management. Commenting on the Baillie Gifford US Growth trust, Weinstein said: “It means there will be one Baillie Gifford London Stock Exchange fund – it’s not like M&S has cancelled, the (current) trust is a shell of Tesla and Nvidia. You’ll end up with ours at LSE.”

James Budden, director of Baillie Gifford, said: “This is a twist – there are hundreds of trusts listed on the LSE. If Saba goes ahead and integrates them into their fund, there will be companies fewer and fewer investment assets and fewer options and options for investors.”

Saba plans to become the trust’s investment manager if the owners agree to replace the boards with people appointed by the firm, which includes Weinstein.

But its approach has been criticized as “opportunistic” by some fund managers to show concern that sellers will not choose. An existing manager notes that shareholders may be left with a car that is completely different from the one they originally bought.

“If they weren’t interested, maybe (the trusts) would have treated them better,” Weinstein said.