Saba Capital’s Boaz Weinstein’s open letter makes claims about EWIT’s SpaceX holding© Bloomberg

Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust has hit back at an open letter from Saba Capital, which is trying to take over the trust.

In the letter, Saba said it was “deeply concerned” with the trust’s decision to reduce its stake in SpaceX, the American aerospace company owned by Elon Musk.

Saba founder Boaz Weinstein, said: “We are deeply concerned at the recent selldown by Baillie Gifford of the company’s stake in SpaceX — the crown jewel of the company’s portfolio — just two months prior to SpaceX’s scheduled revaluation, in a move that appears to defy commercial logic.”

Weinstein went on to claim Baillie Gifford, which runs the trust, was considering a merger between EWIT and Baillie Gifford US Growth Trust.

Saba owns a 30 per cent stake in the company and in December made clear its intentions to attempt to takeover the board.

It is the second time the activist investor has targeted the investment trust.

An EWIT spokesperson said: “Saba’s open letter adds to the numerous inaccurate statements and misleading assertions it is making designed to mislead shareholders as part of this US hedge fund’s aggressive campaign to achieve its ultimate objective — to seize control of the company to prioritise its own commercial interests to the potential detriment of other shareholders.”

On Friday, EWIT will hold a question-and-answer session where it said it will address Saba’s assertions on SpaceX.

A Stock Exchange announcement on Wednesday (January 7), showed ISS and Legal and General were backing the EWIT board.

Jonathan Simpson-Dent, Edinburgh Worldwide chair, said: “For a second time within a year, independent voting adviser ISS has recommended that shareholders vote against all of Saba’s resolutions.”

He urged shareholders to vote against Saba’s resolutions, at the meeting on January 20, to prevent the US firm from “taking control of the company on the cheap”.