Co-Portfolio Managers Adam Norris and Paul Green explain why discounts are only one part of the investment trust story, and how CT Global Managed Portfolio Trust looks for opportunities where long-term value may be created.
Spend any time looking at investment trusts today and one element stands out: discounts are hard to ignore. The idea of buying £1 of assets for 80pis innately appealing, yet discounts alone rarely tell the full story. In practice, the cheapest part of the market, measured by the widest discount, has in fact not consistently delivered the best outcomes for shareholders.
Share price discounts and premiums are part of the investment trust structure. They move with sentiment, liquidity and demand as much as fundamentals. At times they can offer genuine value; at others they reflect deeper issues that may be slower to resolve. The challenge is distinguishing between the two.
At CT Global Managed Portfolio Trust, that distinction sits at the centre of how we invest. The Trust offers two portfolios: Growth, which aims to grow capital, and Income, which aims primarily to provide a growing, regular income, with a secondary aim of some capital growth. Both invest in a diversified portfolio of listed investment companies.
Some trusts trade at wide discounts because they hold less realisable, or liquid assets, investor confidence in the strategy has weakened, or catalysts to narrow the discount are impeded or unclear. Others trade on tighter discounts for good reason, such as a strong track record, clear demand for the underlying assets, or confidence in the manager’s approach.
Discounts should be understood rather than simply pursued.
Measuring the gap
Our starting point is the underlying asset class and the investment manager. Different areas of the market recognise value in different ways. Listed equities can adjust quickly as expectations move, while private assets or infrastructure may evolve more gradually. Understanding those dynamics helps us identify opportunities, while avoiding situations where a discount may persist because the market struggles to price the assets with conviction.
The manager is also critical. We spend much of our time meeting with investment managers to understand how their investment process works in practice, how repeatable it is, and how the wider team is structured. Performance matters, but so does consistency of approach: how decisions are made, how portfolios evolve, and whether the investment culture supports long-term discipline.
Governance and structure increasingly define shareholder outcomes too. Investment trust boards can influence shareholder returns through buybacks, strategic changes or capital allocation decisions, while size, liquidity and the shareholder base all affect how a trust can trade in the market. The task is to assess whether each trust’s structure is fit for what it is trying to achieve.
Bridging the gap
Bringing these elements together allows us to move beyond simple valuation metrics and build a fuller picture of each opportunity. It is supported by quantitative work, where we analyse exposures across the portfolio to ensure diversification is meaningful, not just in the number of holdings, and in the underlying drivers of return.
The CT Global Manged Portfolio Trust’s holdings therefore reflect where we see the most compelling investment areas, not just in discounts, but across markets. Today, that includes areas where fundamentals are improving but sentiment has yet to fully catch up. Emerging markets is just one example, where corporate profitability is booming, and in certain pockets of private equity, where long-term value creation may be taking place away from public markets.
The Trust has also refined how investors can measure progress, moving from a single benchmark to a broader set of comparators. The FTSE All‑Share Index remains for continuity and as a broad UK market reference point. The FTSE All‑Share Closed Ended Investments Index reflects the investment company universe from which the Trust selects holdings. UK Consumer Price Index, or CPI, gives investors a way to assess whether returns are keeping pace with inflation and growing wealth in real terms.
For Income shareholders, the Board intends to increase dividends by at least CPI over a rolling three‑year period, with the aim of helping protect income against inflation. Performance statistics will continue to be available in factsheets, marketing documents and the Trust’s report and accounts.
The aim is to help investors judge progress through more than one lens: market returns, the investment company universe and inflation.
Ultimately, “minding the gap” is less about focusing on discounts in isolation and more about understanding where different pockets of value exist, and which are most likely to generate returns over time. For investors, what matters is not just what looks optically cheap today, but whether value can be realised and compounded over future periods.
*Investment trusts may trade at a discount or premium and discounts can persist or widen. Investments may carry higher risk and returns are not guaranteed. Views are subject to change.
Capital at risk. The value of your investments and any income from them can go down as well as up and you may not get back the original amount invested.
Issued by Columbia Threadneedle Management Limited and approved for distribution 19/10/2026.
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