Discount Delver: the 10 cheapest trusts on 23 January 2026

Investment trusts offer 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.  

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. 

Wind-up candidates appear again 

Investment trusts at some stage in the wind-down process appear prominently in this week’s list. 

To start with the top name, shares in Aquila European Renewables Ord (LSE:AERI) saw their discount move out by almost eight percentage points, to 46.6%.

The fund has been caught up in a lengthy wind-down process, and earlier this month investors approved a share scheme to facilitate the return of capital. 

The last week has seen the trust set the exchange rate for an initial return of capital, while also cancelling the listing of its shares in Dublin. That delisting does not affect the status of its shares on the London Stock Exchange. 

As we have noted before, oddities of the wind-down process can sometimes affect the stated portfolio NAV, and therefore the discount. If such details can sometimes distort the figures, investors may well still see value in a wind-down fund trading on a big discount. 

Not all wind-downs are as simple as expected. That’s still the case for abrdn European Logistics Income PLC (LSE:ASLI), which has reached the late stages of that process but has recently seen a prominent investor, DL Invest Group, call for a reverse of this strategy and a return to investing. 

DL earlier this month requisitioned a general meeting at which shareholders will be asked to vote on proposals to change tack, and to install DL to run the portfolio.

Further details of the meeting are due to be released in the coming days but the trust continues with the wind-down for now. It announced this week that it had disposed of another asset.

Chrysalis Investments Limited Ord (LSE:CHRY) has also seen its discount widen slightly in the last week. While terms such as “wind-down” were not used in the relevant announcement, in December the trust unveiled plans for a change of strategy, subject to shareholder approval at an extraordinary general meeting in February.

This shift would see the investment managers refrain from making new investments, instead focusing on “maximising the value of its existing portfolio and returning capital to shareholders over a three-year period”. The proceeds would be returned to shareholders. 

Real assets make an appearance 

The other names in this week’s list are relatively light on major news. 

Activist vehicle Achilles Investment Company Ord (LSE:AIC) could be still suffering a hangover from a recent weak update for Life Science REIT Ord (LSE:LABS), which welcomed one of the managers from Achilles on to its board not long ago. But this might be a tenuous explanation. Another activist-minded fund, MIGO Opportunities Trust Ord (LSE:MIGO), is also in the table.

Otherwise we see plenty of real asset vehicles in the table, from property funds such as Schroder Real Estate Invest Ord (LSE:SREI) to Greencoat Renewables (LSE:GRP) and two “core” infrastructure trusts. 

Leasing fund Amedeo Air Four Plus (LSE:AA4) appears once again.

Source: Morningstar. Data from close of trading 15 January to 22 January.