On April 18, 2023, Saba Capital Management, L.P announced the preliminary voting results of the Company's 2023 have taken to disenfranchise common shareholders including a dilutive private placement, adoption of a control share acquisition provision and an impossible to achieve voting standard in the Annual Meeting of Shareholders. The Saba Capital's director nominee Paul Kazarian will not be seated on the Company's Board of Directors despite having received 64% of the vote from all shareholders. Boaz Weinstein, Founder and Chief Investment Officer at Saba stated that the results of this election put a spotlight on the total disregard the Company and its parent company, Franklin Resources have for the rights of shareholders.

EMO shareholders resoundingly voted for change in this election. However, the Board's entrenchment mechanisms and Company's flawed corporate governance structure ensured that this would be a sham election and that Saba's nominee would never be seated. While the Board claims to be ‘committed to acting in the best interests of all stockholders,' its refusal to accept that shareholders rejected their incumbent shows their determination to do the opposite.

This further underscores our belief that this Board has abandoned its fiduciary obligation to shareholders and will do everything in its power to avoid being held accountable for the gross mismanagement and historic underperformance of the Fund. Saba is committed to pursuing all available paths to continue to defend the rights of closed-end fund shareholders at EMO going forward, and we call for the full board to resign effective immediately.