Discount Delver: the 10 cheapest trusts on 22 May 2026

Investment trusts offer 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.

A bad bid?

A bid for one of the UK commercial property trusts appears to have knocked its share price in recent days, pushing it into this week’s table.

Alternative Income REIT Ord has looked like a potential victim of consolidation in its sector this year, having mulled over but ultimately turned down an acquisition offer from AEW UK REIT Ord a few weeks ago. 

Since then it has received an offer from Glenstone, the trust’s largest shareholder and a name that has bid for it in the past.

Glenstone outlined that offer on 15 May, but a few days later the board noted that it did not include “any offer price or range of prices, nor the terms and conditions on which any possible offer might be made”, leaving them unable to make a detailed evaluation of the offer. 

The board rejected an offer from Glenstone late last year, having argued that it represented a 20.8% discount to the fund’s NAV and “fundamentally undervalued” it.

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Personnel changes

We meanwhile see commodities star Golden Prospect Precious Metal Ord return to the table. 

The fund took a hit earlier this year after its investment managers handed in their notice, and this week the trust announced that Manulife Canada, part of the group that runs the portfolio, would stay at the helm for now. 

That provides some continuity for investors but the trust has served notice on its current investment management company and the board continues to “consider a number of options at its disposal”. Sometimes trusts do end up appointing the investment management firm their former employees went to work for.

Geiger Counter Ord and CQS Natural Resources G&I Ord, which saw the same investment managers hand in their notice earlier this year, also saw their discounts widen slightly this week.

Continued momentum

We otherwise see discounts continue to widen on some troubled trusts. 

Software sell-off victim HgCapital Trust Ord features in the table once again, having recently outlined the NAV hit its portfolio took earlier this year, while Nick Train vehicle Lindsell Train Ord also makes another appearance. Our analysis from this week looks at recent updates for a few key Train holdings.

Other names have seen their discounts widen despite some solid recent performance. Ashoka WhiteOak Emerging Markets Ord is having a good year, as is the somewhat mysterious hedge fund BH Macro GBP Ord, but both see some widening this week.

We also see appearances from the likes of Aberforth Geared Value & Income Ord, Baker Steel Resources Ord and Value and Indexed Property Income Ord.

Source: Morningstar. Close of trading 14 to 21 May 2026.