Discount Delver: the 10 cheapest trusts on 2 April

Investment trusts offer investors the chance of picking up a potential bargain thanks to their closed-ended structure. That happens 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.   

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.  

With the long Easter weekend approaching, this time round we look at discount moves between 25 March and 1 April. 

Renewables and private equity go back on sale

With a couple of exceptions we haven’t seen many obvious triggers for this week’s discount widening. 

abrdn Diversified Income & Growth Ord (LSE:ADIG) technically moves out to a much bigger discount, but this is most likely a numerical oddity as the trust looks to conclude its wind-down programme and go into voluntary liquidation. 

We also see 3i Group Ord (LSE:III), which is largely a play on European retailer Action, extend its share price discount to NAV.

Our in-depth analysis of the trust from earlier this week looks at why recent updates from Action seem to have spooked investors and what it means for the fund. 

Beyond that, it’s not easy to find a concrete explanation for this week’s moves. The renewable energy infrastructure trusts have shown some resilience in the last month but three names from the sector crop up in this week’s table. 

One of them, Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Ord (LSE:ORIT), did release its 2025 results on 24 March and blamed an NAV slump on “sector-wide valuation pressures, largely driven by lower power price and green certificate assumptions”.

It did, however, offer some promising updates in relation to its progressive dividend policy and debt reduction efforts. 

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A name in the table from another sector, Partners Group Private Equity Ord (LSE:PEY), released results on 23 March pointing to a drop in NAV. 

The board said it was looking at ways to “establish a satisfactory path forward that marries achieving liquidity for investors at a narrower discount to NAV, while providing long-term investors with an attractive proposition going forward”. Investors should expect an update on that in June. 

We otherwise see a smattering of very different names in the list, from RM Infrastructure Income Ord (LSE:RMII) to Syncona Ord (LSE:SYNC) and Lindsell Train Ord (LSE:LTI), but without any obvious major news.

Some of these trusts have not had such a bad sell-off in the last month: Lindsell Train shares in particular are only slightly down over recent weeks.

Source: Morningstar, close of trading 25 March to 1 April.