A big week lies ahead for an embattled investment trust, while the banks will be issuing their first trading updates since the outbreak of war in the Middle East.

Shareholders in Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust will vote again on whether to back the board or a New York hedge fund which wants to install three nominees.

Saba Capital Management, which owns about a third of the trust, last week issued an open letter to fellow shareholders in which it accused the trust’s chair of spreading misinformation.

The trust’s board says a vote against Saba will reaffirm support for the company’s strategy, while still providing those seeking liquidity with an exit through a tender offer of 50% of the company’s issued share capital at NAV less costs. This would be proposed following the AGM.

There will also be a second tender offer, expected to be for up to 100% of the company’s share capital, following any IPO of SpaceX. This would enable investors to benefit from any valuation uplift that may crystallise as a result of such an IPO.

Jonathan Simpson-Dent, chair of Edinburgh Worldwide, described it as an “exciting strategy over the long term”.

Climate campaigners including ShareAction are calling for protest votes against NatWest‘s chairman, Rick Haythornthwaite, at its annual meeting in Edinburgh on Tuesday.

They accuse the parent group of Royal Bank of Scotland of watering down restrictions on lending to the oil and gas sector and say it dropped some decarbonisation targets “without robust explanation”.

Signatories to a letter include the Church of England Pensions Board, Rathbones Investment Management, EdenTree Investment Management, Nest, and the Greater Manchester Pension Fund.

They want the bank to meet investors within the next three months to discuss its direction on climate strategy.

NatWest, Barclays and Lloyds will also update the market on the impact of the Iran conflict which has raised costs across the business world.

The wwar has also put a brake on interest rate cuts and the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee is expected to hold the borrowing rate at its meeting on Thursday.

DIARY 

Tuesday 28 April 

• Full-year results from Card Factory
• Trading statements from Barclays and BP
• AGM NatWest

Wednesday 29 April 

• Full-year results from Evoke 
• Trading statements from AstraZeneca, GSK, Haleon and Lloyds 
• US interest rates 
• In the US, quarterly results from Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta Platforms 

Thursday 30 April 

• First-half results from Beazley 
• Trading statements from Endeavour Mining and Standard Chartered 
• AGM Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust
• UK interest rates 
• Eurozone CPI inflation
• Eurozone interest rates