Seeking Alpha – Previous articles described the conflict between institutional investors in closed-end funds and the managers of those funds. Discount reduction measures can benefit shareholders, but they reduce the managers’ fees and profits. So far this year at least eight funds have had stockholders voting to request such measures, so now the Directors of those funds — who may also serve as Board members at dozens of other funds sponsored by the same manager — face a tough choice.
They can ignore the vote, and face a proxy fight next year for their Board seats or a proposal to remove the manager — as has been threatened at the Singapore Fund (SGF). Or they can do what the institutions want, to the manager’s detriment.
