Discount Delver: the 10 cheapest trusts on 28 August 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.

The bidding war falters

In an otherwise fairly quiet week for the investment trust sector, the petering out of a bidding war for Alternative Income REIT Ord (LSE:AIRE) has pushed its shares out to a slightly wider discount.

The trust’s board has been resisting a takeover offer from Glenstone, its biggest shareholder, and was waiting for a potential rival offer from AEW UK REIT Ord (LSE:AEWU).

However, AEW announced this week that it would not be making an offer.

That now leaves shareholders to decide whether to accept an offer from Glenstone, with a deadline of noon on 1 September to do so on interactive investor.

Glenstone has warned that shareholders may miss out on the offer if they do not accept, while the Alternative Income REIT board continues to argue that this offer is “at a material discount” to the trust’s last published NAV, and is not worth taking.

A sleepy week

Two names likely not widely followed by UK investors, UIL Ord (LSE:UTL) and Parvus Energy Efficiency Trust (LSE:AEET), do see some decent discount moves, but otherwise we see small shifts on the back of no major news – likely reflecting the quiet summer period.

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UK equity funds have had a strong showing here, with small-cap plays Strategic Equity Capital Ord (LSE:SEC), Crystal Amber Ord (LSE:CRS) and JPMorgan UK Small Cap Growth & Income (LSE:JUGI) all appearing. 

Crystal Amber is managing a sole remaining asset, having already been through a lengthy wind-down process.

There’s also the small UK income fund BlackRock Income and Growth Ord (LSE:BRIG), plus names focused on emerging markets, Latin America and the biotech space. 

None of these have seen any major developments in the last week. 

Source: Winterflood, close of trading 20 to 27 August 2026.