Discount Delver: the 10 cheapest trusts on 12 September 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. 

Three investment trusts investing in UK shares made the table this week. Smaller company-focused Rights & Issues Investment Trust (LSE:RIII) and River UK Micro Cap (LSE:RMMC) saw their discounts rise a couple of percentage points to -19.3% and -15.2%. UK dividend portfolio Shires Income (LSE:SHRS) also saw its discount slightly rise to -6.9%.

The discount increases – signalling that there are more sellers than buyers – chimes with fund flow data, which shows that investors haven’t been attracted by the recent strong performance of the UK stock market. The latest figures, for July, reveal that UK funds saw £718 million of redemptions. According to the Investment Association (IA), the fund trade body, the selling suggests investors are taking a more cautious stance towards UK equities, potentially in anticipation of the upcoming Budget and its implications for taxation, spending and broader economic growth.

The average discount for the UK smaller companies and UK equity income trust sectors is -10.9% and -3.6% respectively. For the UK All Companies sector, of which there are only five investment trusts, the average discount is -7.6%.

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Once again, renewable energy infrastructure trusts feature in the table, with Aquila Energy Efficiency Trust (LSE:AEET), Foresight Environmental Infrastructure (LSE:FGEN) and SDCL Efficiency Income Trust (LSE:SEIT) appearing this week.

The sector, along with others aiming to generate an income from alternative assets, was hit by higher interest rates. However, now that rates are declining – currently at 4% with further falls expected in the coming months – some investors think the gap between low-risk bonds and the yields on offer from renewable energy trusts is large enough to make the trusts attractive again.

The sector average yield is 9.9% and sector average discount is -29.3%.

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