Scottish Mortgage Invest... Share Discussion Threads

[quepassa] 22/1/2025 15:11

Herald Investment Trust- Saba. Today's vote and EGM result.

Saba lose big-time.

Bodes well for ScoMo sister-funds, EWI and BGUSA:-



Andrew Joy, Chairman of Herald Investment Trust plc, said:


"Today non-Saba shareholders have almost unanimously rejected Saba's self-interested proposals.


The fact that 99.78% of all votes cast by non-Saba shareholders were voted against Saba's resolutions and in favour of the existing Board provides a clear, complete and incontrovertible rebuttal of Saba's attempt to take control of your company and change its strategy against the wishes and interests of its non-Saba shareholders.(1) (2)


The votes against Saba's proposals were supported by independent proxy advisers including Glass Lewis and ISS. It is perfectly clear that the reason Saba's proposals were rejected is that they were intended to lead to an outcome, namely Saba managing Herald, which the existing shareholders were simply not interested in. The reason shareholders invested, and continue to invest, in Herald is for long-term capital appreciation through investing in smaller technology companies, and they do not wish to be deprived of the opportunity to enjoy more of the same. They did not invest in Herald to become part of a short-term trading strategy.


I would like to thank all Herald's shareholders, both large and small, for their support. I very much regret that this episode has already cost shareholders money, which unfortunately we cannot reclaim from Saba. We look forward to engaging with our shareholders, including Saba, now that our shareholders have voted resoundingly in favour of the Board and by extension, the mandate and the Manager.


The Board will be taking advice from our advisers on the next steps. Shareholders have voted overwhelmingly to continue with what has been a unique and highly successful strategy, and we look forward to discussing future developments further with them.


We are well aware of the environment in which investment companies operate and the need to have regard for creating value not just by multi-year patient growth in NAV, which to remind people, has enabled a 27x NAV total return(2) since launch in 1994, but also by ensuring that capital allocation is optimised, again for the long term. As evidence, Herald has bought back its own shares every year since 2007, including approximately 10% of the Company's share capital in each of the last two years. The Company has only ever issued £95m of stock and has bought back over £465m already, and still has net assets of £1.2bn. The Board, working with the Manager, will continue to be alive to the best use of the Company's funds at any particular time."


All of the Requisitioned Resolutions were voted on by way of a poll and the results are shown in the table below.


ALL IMO. DYOR.
QP

[quepassa] 22/1/2025 13:59

First Trump presidency 2017-2021.

ScoMo share price:-

2017 350p
2021 1350p

equivalent to 380% return.


If history repeats itself during second Trump presidency:-

2025 1050p
2029 4000p

And in my opinion, such is the US state-sponsored support and backing for Tech and AI, that history may well surpass itself this time.

ALL IMO. DYOR.
QP

[hazl] 22/1/2025 13:14

Oh dear.

These people have too much influence and power to my mind.

[quepassa] 20/1/2025 11:24

Geiger Counter Limited (NCIM/ManuLife)

Ticker: LSE:GCL

Saba Capital have just increased stake from 5.2% to 10.4%


ALL IMO. DYOR.
QP

[hazl] 16/1/2025 11:31

Yes thanks, there was certainly something mentioned along those lines already.
I'll look back.

EDIT.


Ah yes, a recommendation.

[mike the mechanic] 16/1/2025 07:57

The Herald vote closes on 22nd January and will set the precedent for the rest of the SABA attacks.

[hazl] 15/1/2025 21:19

And don't forget the sentiment against Saba.
SpaceX is included in various funds not just ours.
Some believe that they are trying to buy the assets on the cheap.Ian Cowie the regular writer in the ST Business mentioned the trust he is in where they have 12% of Space X.
He says that Musk's unlisted satellies business has the potential to replace every internet provider everywhere.
I have no idea but I do know that Herald investors voted against Sabre too announced today I believe.
Correction. They have not voted yet.


EDIT

Thanks to Mike.



IMO

[peetle] 15/1/2025 21:05

Part of the recent surge in SMT must be because of the anticipated float of SpaceX , which will clarify the value of their holding if nothing else. And remove if from the "unlisted" part of the holdings.Whatever you think of the Trump/Musk dynamic it's probably good for SpaceX in the short/medium term. Although it may be catastrophic for everyone else.

[quepassa] 14/1/2025 16:06

Food for thought.


Valuation of Amazon $2.3 trillion

Valuation of SpaceX $350 billion



SpaceX is 15% valuation of Amazon.


Last month, CNBC ran an article headed "Jeff Bezos believes his space company Blue Origin will be bigger than $2 trillion Amazon".

hXXps://www.cnbc.com/2024/12/04/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-will-be-bigger-than-amazon.html


And many commentators would place SpaceX ahead of Blue Origin in the space race.




ALL IMO. DYOR.
QP

[quepassa] 14/1/2025 12:38

Big news (as predicted)

December 31st MONTHLY FACT SHEET just out.

Unlisted SpaceX is now Scomo's LARGEST HOLDING.

Clearly been significantly revalued since prior month and since latest SpaceX Tender Offer.

It is astonishing (in a good way) that an UNLISTED investment is now ScoMo's biggest holding.

But it shouts and confirms an important message. The PRIVATE markets are a very different market nowadays to the commonly held misconceptions about them.



Top 5 as at 31/12/24

SpaceX 7.5%
Amazon 6.3%
Mercado Libre 5.1%
Meta 4.6%
Nvidia 4.1%

See my post 3788 for comparison to prior month.


ALL IMO. DYOR.
QP

[raldo] 14/1/2025 10:00

£10 the return! Incoming...

[steeplejack] 13/1/2025 14:41

Sorry to pour cold water on the party but Moderna is down 22% currently.At this rate Moderna,once SMTs biggest stock ,accounting for over 10 per cent of the portfolio will be under 1 percent ie the damage is arguably now largely discounted with the price around 30 bucks down from a high in the mid 400s when covid was at its peak.This must be pretty sobering for the fund managers.If purchasing Tesla was SMTs finest hour then investing in vast quantities of Moderna must be up there as one of their worst.

“Shares of Moderna tumbled in early trading Monday after the vaccine maker predicted a steeper-than-expected sales drop in the new year.

Moderna said it expects 2025 revenue to range between $1.5 billion and $2.5 billion after hitting as much as $3.1 billion last year.

Analysts expect, on average, $2.92 billion in revenue for 2025, according to FactSet.

The company also said it was speeding up and expanding a cost-cutting plan. It expects to cut cash costs by $1 billion in the new year, with additional cuts planned in 2026.”

[hazl] 10/1/2025 16:36

I just post facts not judgements so please DYOR.
The DOW is plunging over the way in the US.
So don't invest more than you can afford to lose as they say.

However very interesting announcement today excerpt below.

'


NVIDIA Announces Blueprint for AI Retail Shopping Assistants
10/01/2025 2:00pm
GlobeNewswire Inc.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA)
Intraday Stock Chart


Friday 10 January 2025
Click Here for more NVIDIA Charts.

NRF—NVIDIA today announced the NVIDIA AI Blueprint for retail shopping assistants, a generative AI reference workflow designed to transform shopping experiences online and in stores.

The blueprint — built on the NVIDIA AI Enterprise and NVIDIA Omniverse™ platforms — helps developers create AI-powered digital assistants that work alongside and support human workers. These digital assistants can deliver the expertise of a company’s best sales associate, stylist or designer, elevating customer satisfaction and workforce efficiency.

Using NVIDIA NeMo™ microservices provided within the blueprint, these highly skilled AI shopping assistants can understand text- and image-based prompts, search for multiple items simultaneously, complete complicated tasks such as creating a travel wardrobe, and answer contextual questions like whether a product is waterproof.

Developers can use the Omniverse platform in conjunction with a spatial-scanning solution to enable AI agents to present products in physically accurate virtual environments. For example, customers looking to buy a couch could preview how the furniture would look in their own living room.

AI agents with advanced capabilities like these are designed to enhance customer experiences, drive higher conversion rates, lower product return rates and increase the average size of orders through highly intelligent, personalized suggestions of complementary products or upgrades.

“AI agents can elevate shopping experiences, turning what can be impersonal transactions into smarter, more enjoyable interactions,” said Azita Martin, vice president of AI for retail, consumer packaged goods and quick-service restaurants at NVIDIA. “Shoppers everywhere want intelligent product recommendations, personalized interactions and lightning-fast response times. AI agents built using the NVIDIA AI Blueprint for retail shopping assistants can deliver this kind of exceptional, always-on service to every customer.”

Accelerating Retail AI Assistant Development'

[hazl] 10/1/2025 11:09

Develop generative physical AI powered applications for industrial digitalisation.

[hazl] 10/1/2025 10:55

Absolutely fascinating the way that Nvidia is reinventing itself.
Take a look at this video, further in, but interesing right through, where we see that forget chips, JH has recently said it is open to Intel making them.
It has now developed Omniverse, which it says is the next big thing for it's move into AI and the physical world.
Seeing the robot practise in their gym is something else...a bit chilling even but this seems to be the future.
I am sorry for the continual reference to Nvidia here when we have so many investments.
I realise they are each worthy of research especially the space stakes.
But I am only one person with limited tme and tend to do the research intently in bursts!

[hazl] 09/1/2025 15:07

Still below asset value I see.


Separately.

[18bt] 06/1/2025 07:17

Hopefully Elon will stop his uninformed commentary on UK politics and concentrate on IPOing SpaceX. SpaceX could be one trigger for narrowing the SMT discount further.

[quepassa] 03/1/2025 07:16

Moving up from second in November, ScoMo scoops top position in ii's monthly rankings for most popular Investment Trust for December.

[quepassa] 30/12/2024 20:16

Edinburgh Worldwide owns a 5.6% portfolio holding in unlisted Psi Quantum as at 30/11/24 (valued at £44.2m)

Seven months prior as at 30/4/24 , the holding in Psi Quantum was valued at £36.1m.

However, in view of the recent meteoric rise in value of other listed/quoted comparator Pure-Play quantum computing stocks, one can but wonder to oneself whether the value of Psi Quantum is up with events when other quoted quantum computing stocks have skyrocketed.

For example:-

D-Wave Quantum Inc is UP 923% over one year and UP 267% over one month

Rigetti Computing Inc is UP 1,525% over one year and UP 675% over one month

IONQ is UP 575% over six months and UP 48.5% over one month


ALL IMO. DYOR.
QP

[quepassa] 30/12/2024 12:20

Another so-called expert commentator which totally fails to understand the unlisted portfolio.

When will investors and commentators come to their senses and realise that the unlisted portfolio is the real gem. The unlisted assets are the cherry on top of the sundae.

And Baillie Gifford - through its superlative reputation- is one of the very few retail fund managers which has top-table access to US and other private-equity and pre-IPO opportunities. An area which is otherwise largely dominated by Private Equity sources of capital - and off-limits to retail investors. For UK retail investors to be able to gain access via Baillie Gifford to this private and exclusive market is totally undervalued by the UK market place.

Just look at the rise and rise of SpaceX in the unlisted portfolio which Baillie Gifford initially bought into as a fledgling early-stage enterprise which most commentators mocked for many years. SpaceX has grown to become the third largest holding in the ScoMo portfolio and may well become its top holding by value in due course.

People forget that Microsoft was once a private unlisted company. And Apple. And Amazon.

And that's exactly what Saba Capital have spotted and want to exploit with their current attack on sister-funds BGUSA and EWI as well as their attack on other funds with big unlisted investments such as Herald Investment Trust. - The UK market undervalues unlisted investments and is mired in old-school ways of thinking that unlisted means illiquid and therefore automatically means a Discount-to-NAV. That's nonsense in the days of growing de-equitisation and the meteoric rise of vast new capital-raising possibilities from Private Equity.

In my opinion, Baillie Gifford and other houses could do a better job in market education and investor education in the UK on the attractions and importance of unlisted investments.

These golden investments are mis-understood as being a detractor and drag on the portfolios rather than the pot of gold which they truly are.

ALL IMO. DYOR.
QP