Insiders are piling into the shares of RIT Capital Partners (RCP ) as the Rothschild-backed global trust trails at its widest discount of 21% in years, prompting a total of £45m of share buybacks by the board this year.

Sir James Leigh-Pemberton, the trust’s chair, has today disclosed a near doubling in his stake having bought 5,200 shares at £19.10 at a cost of £99,320.

Leigh-Pemberton, an investment banker who previously ran the UK business of Credit Suisse, had held before that held 5,855 shares worth £111,830.

In a separate announcement, the Rothschild Foundation said it had lifted its stake from 9.9% to 10%. Although a small increase, the company said it followed recent share buying by all the fund managers on the trust’s executive committee.

That includes Francesco Goedhuis, Ron Tabbouche and Andrew Jones, who are respectively chief executive, chief investment officer and chief financial officer of J Rothschild Capital Management, the fund manager established by RIT Capital’s founding chair Lord Rothschild.

On 8 March the board’s senior investment director Philippe Costeletos increased his skin in the game when a family trust of which he is a beneficiary spent £418,000 on 20,860 shares at £20.05.

The spate of insider buying comes after a six-month period in which the board has stepped up its share purchases, particularly in the last month, spending £45m in a bid to mop up surplus stock and reduce the wide discount.

The slump in the trust’s rating follows a period of poor performance and concern over the trust’s large exposure to private and unquoted assets.