Discount Delver: the 10 cheapest trusts on 12 December 2025

Investment trusts, due to their closed-ended structure, offer investors the chance of picking up a potential bargain. Such an opportunity arises when a trust’s share price is lower than the underlying investments held by the trust (the net asset value, or NAV). 

However, a trust trading on a discount to NAV is not necessarily a buying opportunity. There’s likely a good reason why the trust is cheap, such as subdued short- or long-term performance, or poor investor sentiment towards how it invests.

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In our weekly series, interactive investor highlights the 10 biggest investment trust discount moves over the past week. 

In total, nearly 400 investment trusts have been screened, with the data sourced from Morningstar. Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs) have been excluded. We also strip out trusts with less than £30 million in assets and those that are not available on the interactive investor platform.

The battered renewable energy infrastructure sector has continued to see discounts widening in the last week, with the troubled SDCL Efficiency Income Trust plc. (LSE:SEIT) feeling the worst of the pain.

SEIT this week released interim results for a six-month period that saw its NAV fall, due to “more cautious valuation assumptions amid market volatility”.

The trust’s chair Tony Roper claimed that the portfolio had performed broadly in line with expectations, but that sentiment to SEIT’s sector had not improved.

“We are acutely aware of the need to dispose of assets in order to reduce gearing levels, notwithstanding the challenging environment for asset sales,” he said.

“Our priority remains to make disposals but also to take action to find an alternative to the status quo, while ensuring that we deliver value for all shareholders.”

Crucially, the trust’s future now appears to be in question. It will face a continuation vote at its annual general meeting in 2026, but the board said it was “unlikely to recommend continuing in the current form” in the absence of significant success on disposing of assets, cutting debt and returning capital to shareholders.

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Others in the sector have also seen their discounts drift out, from battery storage play Gore Street Energy Storage Fund Ord (LSE:GSF) to Foresight Environmental Infra Ord (LSE:FGEN) and Foresight Solar Ord (LSE:FSFL).

Renewables Infrastructure Group (LSE:TRIG) has continued to see its discount widen in the wake of its plan to merge with HICL Infrastructure PLC Ord (LSE:HICL) ultimately getting scrapped.

Beyond that, Hansa Investment Company Ltd 'A' Class A (LSE:HANA) has seen its discount widen notably, to -45.2%. That comes after the trust won a court case over whether it could acquire its largest holding, Oceans Wilson. An investor had previously objected to the planned merger.

If most of the renewable energy infrastructure trusts in the table have seen their discounts grow without any obvious trigger, we have seen something similar from another under-pressure cohort.

Target Healthcare REIT Ord (LSE:THRL), which focuses on care homes, has seen its discount move out to -23%. Meanwhile, UK commercial property play AEW UK REIT Ord (LSE:AEWU) has seen its shares move from a small premium to a modest discount.

Source: Morningstar. Data from close of trading 4 December to 11 December 2025.