NEW YORK, June 25 (Reuters) - BlackRock ( BLK ) held onto board

seats at six closed end funds last week after investment firm

Saba Capital Management did not secure enough votes to replace

directors or fire the fund manager, according to data released

by BlackRock ( BLK ) on Tuesday.

"Based on the preliminary results from last week's

shareholder meetings, it is clear that shareholders have

rejected both Saba's nominees and its efforts to displace

BlackRock ( BLK ) as investment advisor to the Funds," BlackRock ( BLK ) said in

a statement. The results have not been previously reported.

Saba, run by prominent investor Boaz Weinstein, and

BlackRock ( BLK ), the world's biggest asset management company with

more than $10 trillion in assets under management, have been

locked in battle for months over the future of 10 BlackRock ( BLK )

closed end funds.

Saba wants investors to elect its nominees to the BlackRock ( BLK )

funds' boards and fire BlackRock ( BLK ) as manager at some of them.

Weinstein has argued the funds have posted poor returns and

wants them to offer to buy back shares from investors. Some $1.4

billion in value could be unlocked at the funds by cutting the

funds' discount to their net asset value, he has said. BlackRock ( BLK )

has argued that it has taken action to improve performance and

that its directors are better choices than Saba's nominees.

Investors voted at six BlackRock ( BLK ) funds (,

and) last week and meetings at

BNY and BSTZ have been adjourned due to a failure to achieve

quorum.

Proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS)

wrote earlier that the vote standard for director elections at

BlackRock ( BLK ) can "function as an entrenchment mechanism" that can

make it tough for an activist investor to win a proxy contest.

"BlackRock ( BLK ) maintains a vote requirement that is effectively

impossible to achieve and was put in place to create failed

elections," Weinstein said in a statement. "While Saba has

challenged this entrenchment tactic in court, we are pleased

that our fellow shareholders also want to hold BlackRock ( BLK )

accountable for destroying billions in value," he added.

Votes for four funds take place this week. The funds are

BlackRock Innovation and Growth Term Trust ( BIGZ ), BlackRock

Health Sciences Term Trust ( BMEZ ), BlackRock ESG Capital

Allocation Term Trust ( ECAT ) and BlackRock Capital Allocation

Term Trust ( BCAT ).

Preliminary results, including for BIGZ where the voting

happened on Tuesday, are not yet available, BlackRock ( BLK ) said. The

10 BlackRock ( BLK ) funds jointly oversee roughly $10 billion in

assets.

While ISS noted that corporate governance remains a concern

at the funds, it also wrote that "BlackRock ( BLK ) demonstrated

attention to the key issues for shareholders, rather than

focusing entirely on nebulous criticisms of Saba."