Scottish Mortgage’s Private-Market Vote and SpaceX Index Catalyst Collide in Pivotal Week for the Trust

Shareholders vote on extending £250M private investment limit amid SpaceX volatility and widening discount to NAV, with dividend hike and buyback program.

Shareholders of the Baillie Gifford-run Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust gather in Edinburgh on Thursday for a vote that will determine how aggressively the fund can pursue stakes in private companies like SpaceX. The decision comes during a period of strong portfolio returns and an active share buyback programme, yet the trust’s shares continue to trade at a stubborn discount to net asset value.

The stock was last changing hands at 17.27 euros on the day of the meeting, up 0.94 percent on the previous session and 7.24 percent higher on the week. Year-to-date gains stand at 24.30 percent, though the price remains 11.46 percent below the 52-week high of 19.50 euros reached on 25 May. The 14-day relative strength index sits at 56.3, while the 50-day moving average is 17.03 euros.

Scottish Mortgage’s board is asking investors to renew a special allowance granted on 10 April that permits the management to invest up to an additional £250 million in private companies when the portfolio’s unlisted weighting exceeds the 30 percent ceiling. That threshold was triggered largely by SpaceX, whose valuation has surged on the back of an initial public offering in June following an April 2026 filing with regulators. The space exploration company, now the trust’s largest single holding, came to market at a high of $225 before retreating to around $170. A lock-up period currently prevents Scottish Mortgage from selling its stake.

The secondary article reports that the trust bought back 2.3 million of its own shares on 1 July at 1,484.90 pence each, a move designed to shore up the share price amid the post-IPO volatility. Meanwhile, SpaceX is set to join a major US technology index in July, a rebalancing that is expected to trigger passive fund inflows of roughly $4.3 billion. In a recent note, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives reiterated an “outperform” rating on SpaceX with a $190 price target, citing 12 million Starlink subscribers and a new monthly Cloud deal with Google worth $912 million.

Beyond SpaceX, Scottish Mortgage’s private portfolio also includes positions in artificial intelligence developer Anthropic, privately valued at $900 billion, and payments firm Stripe, estimated at $150 billion. In the semiconductor space, the trust holds ASML and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, the latter trading on a forward price-to-earnings multiple of 28.

The vote also covers the trust’s dividend policy. Scottish Mortgage — an AIC “Dividend Hero” — has raised its payout for 43 consecutive years. The total dividend for the current financial year increases by 4.3 percent to 4.57 pence per share, with the final instalment of 2.97 pence to be paid on 10 July 2026.

Despite a net asset value total return of 27.4 percent for the year ended 31 March 2026 — comfortably ahead of the FTSE All-World Index’s 18.0 percent — and a share price return of 26.8 percent, the discount to NAV has widened. It moved from around 9.0 percent in March 2025 to roughly 9.5 percent in March 2026, according to the board, which attributed the uptick to a sharp NAV increase on the final day of the reporting period. Post-year-end interest has narrowed the gap, and the stock has even traded at a small premium at times.

The trust’s low-cost structure — ongoing charges of 0.33 percent with no performance fees — is a key selling point. But the central question for investors remains whether the ambitious private-market strategy can coexist with a wide discount. The outcome of Thursday’s votes, expected after the close of the meeting, will be closely watched, particularly for any additional colour from fund managers Tom Slater and Lawrence Burns on how they plan to bridge that gap.