BlackRock Frontiers Investment Trust Plc - Portfolio Update
All information is at
Performance at month end with net income reinvested.
One Three One Three Five Since
month months year years years Launch*
% % % % % %
Sterling:
Share price 1.9 -4.3 6.2 26.5 112.3 158.1
Net asset value -1.5 -5.4 2.8 19.9 108.9 176.8
Benchmark (NR)** -1.5 -4.8 1.0 -3.7 43.1 89.4
MSCI Frontiers Index (NR) -4.5 -3.7 7.1 0.7 40.5 88.0
MSCI Emerging Markets Index (NR) -2.1 -4.7 2.2 5.3 28.5 65.6
US Dollars:
Share price 5.4 2.9 13.3 34.7 125.0 122.3
Net asset value 1.9 1.7 9.7 27.7 121.5 138.0
Benchmark (NR)** 2.0 2.3 7.7 2.4 51.5 63.5
MSCI Frontiers Index (NR) -1.2 3.5 14.3 7.1 48.7 61.1
MSCI Emerging Markets Index (NR) 1.3 2.4 9.0 12.0 36.0 41.9
Sources:
*
** The Company’s benchmark changed from MSCI Frontier Markets Index to MSCI Emerging ex Selected Countries + Frontier Markets + Saudi Arabia Index (net total return, USD) effective 1/4/2018.
At month end US Dollar Net asset value - capital only: 208.08c Net asset value - cum income: 213.07c Sterling: Net asset value - capital only: 155.79p Net asset value - cum income: 159.52p Share price: 149.75p Total assets (including income): £301.9m Discount to cum-income NAV: 6.1% Gearing: Nil Gearing range (as a % of gross assets): 0-20% Net yield*: 5.1% Ordinary shares in issue**: 189,270,248 Ongoing charges***: 1.41% Ongoing charges plus taxation and performance fee****: 2.33%
*The Company’s yield based on dividends announced in the last 12 months as at the date of the release of this announcement is 5.1%, and includes the 2024 interim dividend of
** Excluding 52,552,553 ordinary shares held in treasury.
***The Company’s ongoing charges are calculated as a percentage of average daily net assets and using the management fee and all other operating expenses excluding performance fees, finance costs, direct transaction costs, custody transaction charges, VAT recovered, taxation and certain non-recurring items for Year ended
**** The Company’s ongoing charges are calculated as a percentage of average daily net assets and using the management fee and all other operating expenses and including performance fees but excluding finance costs, direct transaction costs, custody transaction charges, VAT recovered, taxation and certain non-recurring items for Year ended
Sector Gross market value Country Gross market value
Analysis as a % of net assets Analysis as a % of net assets
Financials 43.2 Saudi Arabia 15.0
Real Estate 13.0 Indonesia 11.3
Industrials 11.5 United Arab Emirates 11.1
Consumer 11.2 Poland 7.6
Discretionary
Materials 9.1 Turkey 7.5
Information 6.4 Greece 7.4
Technology
Communication 6.2 Hungary 6.7
Services
Consumer Staples 5.4 Kazakhstan 6.1
Health Care 3.7 Multi-International 4.7
Energy 1.6 Pakistan 4.5
----- Thailand 4.4
111.3 Philippines 3.8
----- Vietnam 3.2
Short Positions -3.8 Bangladesh 3.0
----- Kenya 3.0
Malaysia 2.8
Georgia 2.8
Czech Republic 2.4
Chile 2.0
Egypt 1.2
Cambodia 0.8
-----
111.3
-----
-3.8
Short Positions
----
*reflects gross market exposure from contracts for difference (CFDs).
Market Exposure
31.05 30.06 31.07 31.08 30.09 31.10 30.11 31.12 31.01 28.02 31.03 30.04
2024 2024 2024 2024 2024 2024 2024 2024 2025 2025 2025 2025
% % % % % % % % % % % %
Long 118.1 118.4 116.1 112.3 107.9 110.1 109.6 112.4 118.5 121.0 118.5 111.3
Short 2.4 2.9 3.5 3.6 3.9 3.6 3.3 4.0 4.2 3.9 4.3 3.8
Gross 120.5 121.3 119.6 115.9 111.8 113.7 112.9 116.4 122.7 124.9 122.8 115.1
Net 115.7 115.5 112.6 108.7 104.0 106.5 106.3 108.4 114.3 117.1 114.2 107.5
Ten Largest Investments
Company Country of Risk Gross market value as a % of net assets Al Rajhi Bank Saudi Arabia 5.5 Emaar Properties United Arab Emirates 5.3 Bank Mandiri Indonesia 4.9 OTP Bank Hungary 4.1 PZU Poland 4.0 Etihad Etisalat Saudi Arabia 3.8 LPP Poland 3.6 CP All Thailand 3.4 Eldorado Gold Turkey 3.3 FPT Vietnam 3.2
Commenting on the markets,
The Company’s NAV rose by 1.9% in April, largely in line with its benchmark, the MSCI Frontier +
The benign headline performance figures for the month hide what was a notably volatile intramonth performance, with the MSCI Emerging Markets index being down by nearly 10% at one point mid-month following the announcement of significantly higher and broader tariffs than were expected by the US administration on “liberation” day. Since that point, markets have recovered strongly on the expectation that most countries, notably recently including
Relative performance over the month was driven by stock selection. Eldorado Gold (+11.8%), the Turkish and Greek gold mine operator, benefited as gold prices rose. Indonesian property developer, Ciputra (+22.3%), also contributed to returns, rising as rate expectations for
On the flipside, our exposure to Vietnamese IT services company FPT (-11.4%) was the largest detractor over the month. Near term weakness aside, we are optimistic on the broader sector as the market rotates to focus on enterprise AI and the data needs that accompany these solutions. Polish clothing retailer LPP (-8.1%) also detracted after missing consensus estimates for both revenue and margins in 4Q24. Our holding in Turkiye Is Bankasi (-17.1%) fell on concerns of increased political instability following the imprisonment of
In terms of changes to the portfolio in April, we re-initiated a position in
We continue to see improving economic activity in some frontier and smaller emerging markets. With inflation falling across many countries within our universe, rate cuts should resume once US bond yields stabilise. This is a good set up for domestically oriented economies to see a cyclical pick up. We remain positive on the outlook for small emerging and frontier markets, and we find significant value in currencies and equity markets across our investment opportunity set. Our investment universe, in absolute and relative terms, remains under-researched and we believe this should enable compelling alpha opportunities.
Sources:
1
BlackRock as at
2
MSCI as at
ENDS
Latest information is available by typing www.blackrock.com/uk/brfi on the internet, "BLRKINDEX" on Reuters, "BLRK" on Bloomberg or "8800" on Topic 3 (ICV terminal). Neither the contents of the Manager’s website nor the contents of any website accessible from hyperlinks on BlackRock’s website (or any other website) is incorporated into, or forms part of, this announcement.
Release
