ASA Gold & Precious Metals Ltd. Files Proxy Materials

TL;DR

ASA Gold & Precious Metals Ltd. dropped proxy materials with an interview, no fee needed.

AI Summary

ASA Gold & Precious Metals Ltd. filed additional solicitation materials on March 22, 2024, related to their proxy statement. The filing includes an interview with Axel Merk and Chuck Jaffe discussing the company's strategy. No filing fee was required for this submission.

Why It Matters

This filing provides shareholders with additional information and context regarding the company's operations and strategy, which may influence their voting decisions.

Risk Assessment

Risk Level: low — This filing is a routine proxy statement supplement and does not indicate any immediate financial or operational risks.

Key Players & Entities

• ASA Gold & Precious Metals Ltd (company) — Registrant
• Axel Merk (person) — Interviewee
• Chuck Jaffe (person) — Interviewer
• 20240322 (date) — Filing Date

FAQ

Filing Documents

• asa-defa14a_032224.htm (DEFA14A) — 34KB
• 0001999371-24-003832.txt ( ) — 35KB

From the Filing

SOLICITATION MATERIALS UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549 SCHEDULE 14A PROXY STATEMENT PURSUANT TO SECTION 14(a) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 Filed by the Registrant Filed by a Party other than the Registrant Check the appropriate box: Preliminary Proxy Statement Confidential, for Use of the Commission Only (as permitted by Rule 14a-6(e)(2)) Definitive Proxy Statement Definitive Additional Materials Soliciting Material Pursuant to §240.14a-12 ASA Gold and Precious Metals Limited (Name of Person(s) Filing Proxy Statement, if other than the Registrant) Payment of Filing Fee (Check the appropriate box): No fee required. Fee computed on table in exhibit required by Item 25(b) per Exchange Act Rules 14a–6(i)(1) and 0–11. Fee paid previously with preliminary materials. The Navigator Interview with Axel Merk Chuck Jaffe We're talking about how closed end funds manage activist investors with Axel Merk, whose closed end fund is squaring off with them now. This is an unusual episode of The Navigator. Chuck Jaffe Welcome to The Navigator where we talk about all whether active investing and plotting a course to financial success with the help of closed end funds. The Navigator is brought to you by the Active Investment Company Alliance, a unique industry organization that represents all facets of the closed end fund industry from users and investors to fund sponsors and creators. If you're looking for excellence beyond indexing, the Navigator is going to point you in the right direction. And today, well, we're looking into the impact of shareholder activism on a closed end fund, and we're doing it with Axel Merk, who's probably best known as president and chief investment officer at the Merk funds, but who also runs the ASA Gold and Precious Metals Fund. Now that's an old line closed end fund that's based in Bermuda. By the way, that location will become important here. And it was started in 1958, but Axel took it over in 2019. It's ticker symbol ASA, and you can learn about the fund at asaltd.com. And I couldn't help but notice that if you had sound that out phonetically, it comes out as assaulted dot com, which is kind of how Axel might be feeling right now because ASA Gold and Precious Metals is facing an activist investor in Saba Capital Management. So as much as we like hearing about gold and precious metals from Axel, who's been here as a guest several times, today we're going to try to let you see how complex and complicated a proxy fight with an activist investor can be from the side of fund management. And maybe it'll give you a different perspective on hey I buy the discounts. Before we get there a quick reminder that you can learn about closed end funds interval funds and business development companies generally by going to AICAlliance dot org the website for the active investment company alliance. Axel Merk it's great to have you back on The Navigator. Axel Merk Chuck, what an introduction. Good morning. Or good day. Chuck Jaffe A lot to get through because there is a perception, right, we've had plenty of managers on The Navigator who are discount buyers. And there is always a perception that buy closed end funds at a discount. And if the discount gets too wide, well, an activist investor will come in and they will narrow the discount or the open end of the fund. And then we go up to net asset value and look, I bought it at a discount. It got back to its net asset value and I profited. And that sounds great from an investment standpoint, but for somebody running a fund, it's a very different experience to suddenly have people coming into your backyard and doing this. And more to the point. One of the things that people should learn here is that not every activist case is the same. Many activist cases are doing what closed end funds do best, which is things like fixed income funds and the rest. But you run a junior mining fund, and so gold and precious metals, different kind of beast and the impact this can have on shareholders is different. But I’m getting ahead of myself. First things first, help us understand. Saba came in when and where do things stand now in terms of what they want versus what you think is possible? Axel Merk Sure. How many hours do we have? In December 2022, Saba started buying shares in ASA. We saw that in filings early in 2023. And then pretty quickly afterwards, we reached out to them. We reach out to all our investors. We appreciate investors, large and small, whether they’re activists or not to try to establish a dialogue. And as we did that, we took months to get a call established with them. And once we did, they did not have any demands. We asked them in numerous ways, whether they have any requests, any demands, whether they would like to talk to the board directly. And all they said is they’re following the investment process. They also indicated o

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