Company Announcements

 

BLACKROCK FRONTIERS INVESTMENT TRUST PLC (LEI: 5493003K5E043LHLO706)

 

All information is at 30 June 2025 and unaudited.

Performance at month end with net income reinvested.

 

                                 One   Three  One  Three Five  Since
                                 month months year years years Launch*
                                 %     %      %    %     %     %

Sterling:

Share price                      1.1   8.3    14.1 49.3  102.1 174.4

Net asset value                  1.9   1.9    6.2  37.6  97.4  186.4

Benchmark (NR)**                 1.5   0.4    4.7  9.0   34.3  92.9

MSCI Frontiers Index (NR)        3.8   4.7    14.3 20.4  40.3  106.1

MSCI Emerging Markets Index (NR) 4.3   5.5    6.3  17.0  25.3  78.5

US Dollars:

Share price                      2.7   15.0   23.7 68.7  124.4 142.4

Net asset value                  3.5   8.2    15.1 55.5  119.1 152.6

Benchmark (NR)**                 3.1   6.5    13.6 23.0  49.0  70.8

MSCI Frontiers Index (NR)        5.5   11.1   23.9 35.9  55.6  81.2

MSCI Emerging Markets Index (NR) 6.0   12.0   15.3 32.0  39.0  56.8

 

Sources: BlackRock and Standard & Poor’s Micropal

* 17 December 2010.

** 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:                        219.00c

Net asset value - cum income:                          222.43c

Sterling:

Net asset value - capital only:                        159.80p

Net asset value - cum income:                          162.31p

Share price:                                           156.50p

Total assets (including income):                       £421.0m

Discount to cum-income NAV:                            3.6%

Gearing:                                               Nil

Gearing range (as a % of gross assets):                0-20%

Net yield*:                                            4.8%

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 4.8% and includes the 2024 final dividend of 6.00 cents per share, declared on 5 December 2024 paid to shareholders on 14 February 2025 and the 2025 interim dividend of 3.65 cents per share, declared on 29 May 2025, payable to shareholders on 24 June 2025.

** 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 30 September 2024.

**** 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 30 September 2024.

 

Sector           Gross market value    Country              Gross market value
Analysis         as a % of net assets  Analysis             as a % of net assets

Financials       53.8                  Saudi Arabia         14.1

Real Estate      13.0                  Turkey               11.2

Consumer         12.0                  United Arab Emirates 10.9
Discretionary

Industrials      10.9                  Indonesia            10.8

Materials        9.1                   Poland               10.1

Information      7.2                   Greece               7.5
Technology

Communication    5.8                   Vietnam              6.2
Services

Consumer Staples 4.5                   Hungary              5.9

Health Care      2.9                   Thailand             5.6

Energy           2.0                   Kazakhstan           5.5

                 -----                 Georgia              5.4

                 121.2                 Pakistan             5.2

                 -----                 Multi-International  4.8

Short Positions  -3.4                  Philippines          3.9

                 -----                 Kenya                3.3

                                       Bangladesh           3.1

                                       Czech Republic       2.6

                                       Malaysia             2.3

                                       Chile                1.6

                                       Egypt                1.2

                                                            -----

                                                            121.2

                                                            -----

                                                            -3.4
                                       Short Positions
                                                            ----

*reflects gross market exposure from contracts for difference (CFDs).

 

Market Exposure
 

      31.07 31.08 30.09 31.10 30.11 31.12 31.01 28.02 31.03 30.04 31.05 30.06

      2024  2024  2024  2024  2024  2024  2025  2025  2025  2025  2025  2025

      %     %     %     %     %     %     %     %     %     %     %     %

Long  116.1 112.3 107.9 110.1 109.6 112.4 118.5 121.0 118.5 111.3 117.9 121.2

Short 3.5   3.6   3.9   3.6   3.3   4.0   4.2   3.9   4.3   3.8   3.4   3.4

Gross 119.6 115.9 111.8 113.7 112.9 116.4 122.7 124.9 122.8 115.1 121.3 124.6

Net   112.6 108.7 104.0 106.5 106.3 108.4 114.3 117.1 114.2 107.5 114.5 117.8

 

 

Ten Largest Investments

 

Company            Country of Risk      Gross market value as a % of net assets

Emaar Properties   United Arab Emirates 5.2

Al Rajhi Bank      Saudi Arabia         5.1

Bank Mandiri       Indonesia            4.8

Akbank             Turkey               4.4

OTP Bank           Hungary              4.3

PZU                Poland               4.3

FPT                Vietnam              4.0

Etihad Etisalat    Saudi Arabia         3.5

Turkiye Is Bankasi Turkey               3.4

Eldorado Gold      Turkey               3.4

 

Commenting on the markets, Sam Vecht and Emily Fletcher, representing the Investment Manager noted:
 

The Company’s NAV rose by 3.5% in June 2025, outperforming its benchmark, the MSCI Frontier + Emerging ex Selected Countries Index (“Benchmark Index”), which returned +3.1%. For reference, the MSCI Emerging Markets Index returned +6.0% while the MSCI Frontier Markets Index returned 5.5% over the same period. All performance figures are on a US Dollar basis with net income reinvested.

 

Returns in our universe were led by Kenya, rising by 16.0% over the month. The country has continued to build foreign exchange (FX) reserves through the year on the back of strong exports. Whilst our stocks didn’t perform quite as well as the market with Equity group holdings up by 13.5% and KCB Group up by 10.7%, nevertheless they both had a strong month. Turkey was another strong performer, up by 11.3% in June 2025, showing resiliency despite the Middle-East turmoil. May Consumer Price Index (CPI) came in significantly lower than expected, and whilst the CBRT left rates on hold at the June meeting, dovish language left fixed income markets pricing in cuts at the July meeting.   Our Turkish holdings in banks Akbank (+32.0%) and Turkiye Is Bankasi (+22.5%), were the top contributor over the month.

 

ASEAN markets represented the opposite end of the ledger, Indonesia (-5.1%) was the worst performing large market. Banks underperformed amid slow growth, on concerns that earnings would come under pressure from resulting rate cuts. Bank Mandiri (-7.6%) and Bank Syariah Indonesia (-13.7%),   weighed on performance reflecting these concerns. The Thai market continued the underperformance that we have seen year to date, falling by 3.0% on rising political tensions. Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra was suspended on 1 July 2025 by the Thai Constitutional Court following a leaked phone call with Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen. CP ALL, the Thai convenience store operator, slid by 5.5% despite reporting solid earnings and attractive valuations as Thailand faced a drop in foreign tourist arrivals, particularly from China and Malaysia. Adding to the regional underperformance, Philippines fell by 1.0% with the banks particularly underperforming. Bucking the trend, Ayala Land, a Philippines-based real estate company, surged by 16.3%, on news of redevelopment and expansion plans, buoyed by falling interest rates and rising household incomes.

 

In Eastern Europe, The Hungarian low-cost airline, Wizz Air, was the worst performer over the month as it declined by 30.6% as FY25 operating profit missed expectations, impacted by grounded aircrafts and a spike in oil prices amid heightened tensions in the Middle East, which weighed on the broader airline sector.

 

We made a few tactical adjustments in June 2025, initiating a position in the Polish Bank, PKO, to take advantage of the post-election weakness and favourable interest rate environment. We also initiated a position in the Thai credit card company, Krungthai Card, leveraging the dislocation from technical selling pressure and pledged shares sales, while the fundamentals remain intact. We trimmed our position in Philippines-based online gaming company, DigiPlus, to lock profits. The stock continues to exhibit strong fundamentals and remains attractively valued. We reduced our position in Kaspi, the Kazakh online financial platform, following its disclosure of higher-than-expected upcoming investments for its Turkey expansion. We exited our position in NagaCorp, which operates casinos in Cambodia, due to concerns over weak recent visitor trends, rising capital expenditures, and expectations of muted free cash flow yields going forward.

 

Looking ahead, we remain constructive on the outlook for smaller emerging and frontier markets. With inflation easing across many of our key markets and U.S. bond yields remaining relatively stable, we anticipate that central banks in our target countries will begin to resume interest rate cuts in the near term. This backdrop sets the stage for a cyclical recovery in domestically driven economies. Valuations across our investment universe remain attractive, both in absolute and relative terms. Many of these markets are still under-researched, and we believe this creates fertile ground for finding high-conviction, alpha-generating opportunities.

 

Sources:

1 BlackRock as at 30 June 2025

2 MSCI as at 30 June 2025

 

21 July 2025

 

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