Henderson Opportunity Trust Company Research (HOT)

With a focus on long-term growth, Henderson Opportunities Trust’s (HOT’s) all-market investment strategy includes a strong bias towards smaller and earlier-stage companies. The relative weakness of smaller companies in the past three years, particularly AIM stocks, has weighed heavily on HOT’s performance, obscuring its previous exceptional returns. It is in this context that HOT is one of the trusts targeted by the activist US hedge fund Saba Capital, which is proposing to oust the independent board and replace the trust’s investment managers. HOT’s board strongly urges shareholders to reject Saba’s proposals on their own merits. Only if this occurs will shareholders be able to consider the board’s own proposals for HOT, which, in our view, are significantly more attractive. These include a full cash exit at NAV and/or the option to roll over into an alternative, open-ended vehicle.