Discount Delver: the 10 cheapest trusts on 13 March 2026

Investment trusts offer investors the chance of picking up a potential bargain thanks to their closed-ended structure. Such an opportunity arises when a trust’s share price is lower than the value of its underlying investments (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 it.  

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In this weekly series, interactive investor highlights the 10 biggest investment trust discount moves over the past week. Note that this time we have covered the period from 11 to 18 February.  

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.  

Renewable troubles resurface 

The woes of renewable energy infrastructure trusts have landed them back in our table this week, most notably in the form of dividend cutter NextEnergy Solar Ord (LSE:NESF). 

Investors have worried for quite some time about the sustainability of dividends in the sector, given the sky-high yields on offer.  

NESF gave credence to such fears this week when it unveiled a “strategic reset” that will see it focus on total returns rather than just income, and move from a progressive dividend policy to a percentage-based approach, looking to pay out 75% of operating free cash flows. 

This should free up around £40 million over a five-year period, allowing the trust to reduce its hefty debt pile. The trust will also seek to sell more assets, target renewed NAV growth from existing assets and increase its exposure to energy storage. 

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The immediate result of this shift has been a roughly halving of the trust’s dividend payout and the shares have tumbled this week. NESF, a popular name among ii customers, once again comes with a wide discount, of around 44%, and a share price dividend yield of 17.8%. 

Renewable trusts, which rallied in the week after hostilities broke out in the Middle East, have more generally experienced share price weakness and discount widening in recent days.

This week’s table also includes Hydrogen Capital Growth (LSE:HGEN) and Ecofin US Renewables Infrastructure Ord (LSE:RNEW), both of which are in the process of a wind-down. 

From commodities to credit 

Uranium fund Geiger Counter Ord (LSE:GCL) saw its discount advance by around six percentage points in a week where it lost both an investment team and a chair.  

Keith Watson and Rob Crayfourd, who run the investments for Geiger Counter as well as CQS Natural Resources G&I Ord (LSE:CYN) and Golden Prospect Precious Metal Ord (LSE:GPM), have resigned from their roles and will serve a three-month notice period. Geiger Counter shareholders saw another change this week too, with chair Ian Reeves stepping down from the role due to health reasons.

All three trusts said they would assess their options when it came to investment management arrangements, with GPM also serving notice on the fund firm running its portfolio. 

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The table otherwise has an eclectic mix of trusts. There’s M&G Credit Income Investment Ord (LSE:MGCI), which tends to mainly focus on investing in private debt.

We haven’t seen any specific news for the trust but private credit as a subsector is under plenty of scrutiny at the moment, thanks to concerns about its exposure to software companies, and in the wake of high-profile defaults for companies such as First Brands.

One fund run by Blue Owl, a big player in the private credit space, recently restricted investor redemptions and will seek to return capital as and when it can. Worries about the space could well be hurting sentiment on UK-listed credit funds. 

We also see JPMorgan Global Core Real Assets Ord (LSE:JARA), which is in the process of a wind-down, make it into the table. So does Bellevue Healthcare Ord (LSE:BBH), which has carried out a tender offer as part of its shift to a long/short investment strategy under Columbia Threadneedle.

Source: Morningstar. From close of trading 5 March to 12 March 2026.