Has British Assets overhaul prompted shift in F&C trust discount?

The overhaul of the British Assets trust may have caused an unusual discount narrowing on the £2.6bn Foreign & Colonial trust, according to analysts.

Foreign & Colonial has seen its discount narrow by almost 10 percentage points since the start of the year, with its discount narrowing to less than -5% for the first time since 2009. The trust's discount has routinely stayed at around 8%-10% over the past 15 years, and the recent shift comes as another F&C-managed investment company - British Assets - is set to move to BlackRock. The board of the £445m British Assets trust has committed to switch to BlackRock this year, and 97% of shareholders approved plans to convert the trust from a global equity income to a multi-asset income man...