Discount Delver: the 10 cheapest trusts on 9 January 2026

Investment trusts offer 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.

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.

Trusts slip in a quiet week

Equity markets have enjoyed a strong start to the year, with major indices making decent gains despite fresh geopolitical turmoil. In that context a handful of different investment trusts have seen their discount widen without any obvious trigger, as we saw a week earlier.

A whole range of different trusts have moved to ‘cheaper’ valuations, with activist vehicle Achilles Investment Company Ord (LSE:AIC) leading the way. The trust, which has cropped up in this analysis before, trades on a 6.5% discount.

Achilles itself has not made any major announcements to the market this week. But it’s notable that the Life Science REIT Ord (LSE:LABS), which appointed Achilles’ lead fund manager Robert Naylor to its board last year, released an update today showing that its NAV had slipped by 7.8% in the second half of 2025.

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Some other distinctive names feature in this week’s table. There’s Pershing Square Holdings Ord (LSE:PSH), the Bill Ackman fund with a concentrated portfolio of US shares. The fund has been a very strong performer in recent years and enjoyed a share price total return of around 26% last year.

A more troubled US equity fund, Brown Advisory US Smaller Companies Ord (LSE:BASC), also sits in this week’s list. Shareholders suffered a small loss in 2025, while the trust itself now looks relatively small with a market capitalisation of around £173 million.

A handful of other markets are covered by the names in this week’s table.

There’s VietNam Holding Ord (LSE:VNH), whose shares slipped slightly in 2025, and strong performer Fidelity Emerging Markets Ord (LSE:FEML).

Closer to home, there’s the small and mid-cap focused income fund Chelverton UK Dividend Trust Ord (LSE:SDV).

Aircraft leasing fund Amedeo Air Four Plus (LSE:AA4) and commodities fund CQS Natural Resources G&I Ord (LSE:CYN) have also seen their discounts widen, as has abrdn Property Income Trust Ord (LSE:API), which is in the process of winding up.

Source: Morningstar. Data from close of trading 1 January to 8 January.