27th Feb 2026 15:23
(Alliance News) - Impax Environmental Markets PLC Chair Glen Suarez on Friday said he's willing to put his listed GBP811 million environmental trust on the line by putting forward an exit tender offer if Saba Capital's management rejects the proposal of the continuation tender offer.
The move was announced in an open letter to Saba's founder and Chief Investment Officer Boaz Weinstein, and Partner and Portfolio Manager Paul Kazarian circulated on regulatory channels, in which Impax urged the company to be "reasonable".
The letter prompted Saba to release a statement where it reiterated its past requirement of Impax covering the full costs of the tender to partake in it, paving the way for a showdown the coming months.
Saba acquired a 22% stake in Impax in late 2025. Impax's board proposed a continuation tender offer in January after it received a continuation vote by shareholders, on the grounds that it didn't have faith in Saba's intentions nor that it shares the fund's goals.
The continuation offer, which offered investors the chance to exit the investment at the net asset value minus costs, was rejected by Saba, whose approval was conditional to the tender itself.
Saba instead asked Impax to cover all costs including stamp duty, or to consider combining with "another investment company in which you have a large holding and which has an entirely different investment focus", Suarez's open letter said.
"It is clear Saba does not share the same objectives as its fellow shareholders and as a result, we presented a tender offer proposal to you in January. This was an attempt to reconcile the different views and interests of Saba and the rest of the shareholder base, as well as ensure that the company did not become enmeshed in an ongoing, destabilizing and expensive dispute that the Board has seen elsewhere. I was disappointed this was rejected outright," the letter said.
"We even managed to negotiate a substantial financial contribution...such that you and others who wished to, could exit at an even more attractive price, a near identical proposal to one you accepted as recently as last week. Your insistence that Impax...cover all the costs of the transaction including stamp duty is unreasonable, not workable and has never been done before," Suarez added.
Impax's chair said that unless Saba accepts the continuation tender offer, which conditions it reported weren't satisfied due to Saba's opposition, "the outcome now is the exit tender offer" which will have similar terms of exiting at close to NAV.
"You could tender in the exit tender offer, which would in effect destroy a UK listed company, or you could decide not to tender and take control. Both outcomes carry significant reputational risk for Saba - imposing an outcome the majority of your fellow shareholders do not wish to see," Suarez said.
Suarez also said that doing nothing is not an option in a comment in the regulatory filing where it confirmed the continued tender offer's condition hadn't been met, as it would risk "prolonged instability, significant costs, and a much worse outcome for shareholders".
In a statement released Friday afternoon, Saba maintained that it is prepared to tender its shares if Impax agrees to pay "the full tender costs for all shareholders who wish to exit".
"For Saba, this decision was guided purely by our duty to hold management accountable to act in shareholders’ best interests by covering the costs of this exit. Unfortunately, Mr. Suarez represents many of the structural problems within the UK non-executive directors' community – namely, the implicit understanding that directors serve the manager rather than the shareholders. It raises a fundamental question: whose side is Mr. Suarez on?," the statement added.
In the response, Saba mentioned Impax's "disastrous" performance against the MSCI ACWI Index benchmark which it has lagged "on a three-year basis...by more than 54%".
If an exit tender offer is put forward to Impax's shareholders, it would require a simple majority to pass and it would not be conditional on Saba's participation.
Impax Environmental shares were up 1.7% to 448.58 pence each, trading at a 5.7% discount on the NAV on Friday afternoon in London.
By Martin Miraglia, Alliance News reporter
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