Saba Capital has moved closer to launching a European activist exchange traded fund focussed on UK-listed investment trusts trading on persistent discounts after receiving regulatory approval in Ireland to operate the vehicle as an active ETF, according to a report by Quoted Data.

The reports it's a recent regulatory filing as showing that Central Bank of Ireland has upgraded the Saba Capital Investment Trusts UCITS ETF from “null” to “active” status and assigned the fund a legal entity identifier. The ETF was initially registered by the US hedge fund manager in September and is expected to target London-listed closed-end funds.

Once launched, the vehicle will serve as a European counterpart to Saba’s $374m Saba Closed-End Funds ETF (CEFS), which has been operating in the US since 2017 with a high-income mandate focused on discounted closed-end funds.

The planned ETF would allow Saba to pursue its activist strategy across UK investment companies through a listed, daily-liquidity structure, adding another tool to its increasingly high-profile campaign in the sector.

Saba has continued to pursue board-level activism in the UK despite recent setbacks. Last month, the firm failed for a second time to replace the board of Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust, though it remains active in other situations, including Herald Investment Trust and Impax Environmental Markets.