We would hesitate to call it a wave of consolidation - maybe a ripple would be more appropriate - but this year has seen a number of mergers among investment trusts.There is a long tail of sub-scale funds and trusts in the UK all desperate to attract more investors, but with the average discount to net asset value hitting 18% at the end of October, according to research from Winterflood...

According to data from the AIC, the average investment trust discount to net asset value has widened from 12.2% at the end of 2022 to 14.5% as of 8 September 2023, while sector averages have generally widened. The exception is private equity, which narrowed from 25.1% to 4.5%, skewed by 3i's (III) dramatic swing from discount to premium.While this presents an opportunity to buy into parts of...

Infrastructure trusts to mergeDeal continues trend towards consolidationAsset manager Abrdn leads the wayAgainst a backdrop of falling NAVs (net asset values) due to higher UK interest rates, and with the average discount across the investment trust sector hitting its widest level since 2008 in the second quarter, it seems more managers are biting the bullet and agreeing to merge.After...