As of this Monday, there were 14 UK investment trusts priced at less than half their net asset values. Despite considerable recent pain, such mark-downs are still rare; 14 amounts to roughly 5 per cent of the total sector, per Winterflood Research.
Of these, four are in active wind-down, realisation or rollover, another (Home Reit (HOME)) is indefinitely suspended, while a sixth, Hipgnosis Songs (SONG), is in crisis after shareholders voted against extending its investment mandate in October. Huge uncertainty also characterises Chrysalis Investments (CHRY), which will soon hold its own continuation vote after a torrid run, and Digital 9 Infrastructure (DGI9), which in November sold its most valuable asset and launched a strategic review.
That leaves six, of which four typify the now-familiar market stand-off around the valuation of illiquid private equity assets, and a fifth, Ceiba Investments (CBA), is probably shunned because its chosen real estate focus is in one of the world’s only one-party Marxist–Leninist states, Cuba.