I was wondering why certain CEFs trade at such large discounts to NAV. For example, BIF trades at a 22% discount to NAV. It's total market cap is 200M. It is mostly US equities 1/3 of which is BRK-A. 1) Why aren't arbitragers stepping in and buying the fund and shorting the holdings? Or 2) why isn't someone buying all the shares and closing out the CEF at a 20% profit?
it is 20% discount and expense ratio is 3%. management seems ok, outperformed the SPX by 20% over the last 10 years ?
3% expenses out of 10% expected returns equals 30% discount. some of that is mitigated by cheap leverage (ie if 25% leverage generates extra 1.5% return (including cost of leverage)) but not enough.
same reason why one class of stock trades at a lower price, when it has more voting rights. folks don't like it.