Flash update from Kepler Trust Intelligence

Baillie Gifford US Growth Trust PLC

22 September 2026

 

Baillie Gifford US Growth (USA)

22/09/2026

Flash update from Kepler Trust Intelligence

Baillie Gifford US Growth's (USA) shareholders have had some disappointing years since the pandemic, but the past year has seen an impressive return to form. Annual results were just published for the 12 months ending 31/05/2026, in which USA delivered a 31% NAV total return, ahead of the 29.8% of the S&P 500 Index. The shares were up 44.5%. If we bring things up to date, in 2026 the NAV total return of 17.9% is well ahead of the 12.1% of the S&P 500, while the shares are up 22.1% (as of 17/09). The trust has kicked on just as more passive strategies have slowed, with strong performance from SpaceX prior to IPO being very helpful.

The setup for the near future looks really exciting too. In the last financial year the managers invested in Anthropic, the global leader in enterprise AI, which is expected to IPO in October and made up 6.4% of the portfolio as of the end of May. Anthropic has already made a meaningful contribution to returns for 2026, having been written up prior to the listing process. They also added a position in OpenAI, most famous for ChatGPT but breaking new ground with coding models and competitive across multiple vectors. USA also owns the unlisted fintech company Stripe which makes up 7.3% of the portfolio and has been revalued upwards over 2026, within the 28.9% of the portfolio in unlisted investments (after accounting for the listing of SpaceX).

Saba's latest approach to the company therefore seems spectacularly ill-timed. The activist investor has proposed three directors for the board. Saba will of course claim they are independent. Saba also claims to want to offer shareholders a 100% cash exit, but the board points out they have offered this to the activist before and been rejected. If this is so, it can't simply be that Saba wants its money back at NAV, which means we have to wonder what else they might want. The board suggests that Saba wants to get control of the company for its own interests, and this is likely to lead to the end of the current strategy.

We think shareholders should vote against the nomination of Saba's three directors to the board. All the details of when and how to do this are at USA's website. Voting should be available through your platform, and should be done in good time before the AGM on 31/10/2026. The deadline for proxy voting is 1 p.m. on 21/10/2026. Deadlines for voting through platforms will be earlier and may be as early as 14/10/2026, so shareholders must act within the month. Saba cannot win the vote on its own, but if retail shareholders don't vote, it may do.

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