8 May 2026
If you are covering the latest developments in the saga between Workspace Group and Saba Capital Management, please find below a comment from Oli Creasey, head of property research at Quilter Cheviot:
“Workspace Group, the owner/operator of flexible work space across London, has this morning announced the receipt of requisition notice for the AGM taking place in July.
“The letter comes from Saba Capital Management, the US activist hedge fund which has made headlines buying into a number of UK trusts with an eye to changing the companies' directions and closing the often wide discounts to net asset value (NAV) that they were trading at.
“In this respect, Workspace is a typical Saba target. The real estate investment trust (REIT) is trading well below (c. -50%) its published NAV. However, the operational structure of the business makes it slightly different - the company is a recognised brand (its adverts make regular appearances on the London transport network), and is estimated to have over 300 members of staff.
“Saba made first contact with Workspace in January 2026, with a letter demanding that the company address the NAV discount through a managed wind-down - selling the properties one-by-one and returning capital to shareholders. For many other investors, the demands felt impractical, not least due to the tight 12-month timeframe that Saba suggested, but also because of the intangible value of the brand and experience of the staff members (neither of which is reflected in any REIT NAV). Workspace rejected the proposal, but did announce the rapid change of CEO to Charlie Green, founder of the Office Group, another of the UK's leading flexible workspace providers.
“Today's letter indicates that Saba isn’t giving up without a fight. The hedge fund has increased its stake from 13.5% in January to 18.2% today, and is calling for the removal of five of the non-exec directors on the board, to be replaced with four new NEDs, who are presumably more aligned with Saba's vision for the company. While not stated explicitly, we assume that this means the chairman Duncan Owen (who is also strictly an NED) would keep his role, but that all other non-execs would be replaced. The board is completed by the executives: CEO and CFO (Tom Edwards-Moss, who also joined in February 2026).
“Saba's 18% position means that the hedge fund is unlikely to be able to pass this AGM vote on its own. However, there is a potential king-maker on the shareholder register - Nicholas Roditi, formerly George Soros's "most trusted advisor", owns 29% of the company and his vote could swing the vote to very close to 50% meaning Saba would only need a handful of other investors to take their side, or simply abstain from voting to reach a simple majority. Mr Roditi has not publicly stated his opinion on this matter, however, it is notable that he added 1% to his stake in January 2026, shortly after Saba's first letter was sent to Workspace, having held his position unchanged for nearly four years prior. We also note that Mr Roditi has been invested in Workspace since 2004, decades before Saba first showed interest.”
