REG-BlackRock Frontiers Investment Trust Plc: Portfolio Update
22/01/2025 16:30
BLACKROCK FRONTIERS INVESTMENT TRUST PLC (LEI: 5493003K5E043LHLO706)
All information is at 31 December 2024 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 6.0 9.3 16.0 37.0 46.4 165.1
Net asset value 2.3 5.9 10.6 35.6 61.8 185.6
Benchmark (NR)** 2.8 2.1 6.0 14.6 18.1 93.6
MSCI Frontiers Index (NR) 1.7 5.9 11.4 -2.7 15.6 88.0
MSCI Emerging Markets Index (NR) 0.0 -2.8 8.0 0.7 13.5 67.1
US Dollars:
Share price 4.5 2.1 13.9 26.7 38.5 114.0
Net asset value 0.8 -1.2 8.6 25.4 53.1 130.2
Benchmark (NR)** 1.3 -4.7 4.1 6.0 11.6 56.7
MSCI Frontiers Index (NR) 0.2 -1.2 9.4 -10.0 9.3 51.0
MSCI Emerging Markets Index (NR) 0.0 -7.9 7.7 -5.5 8.9 36.3
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: 205.27c
Net asset value - cum income: 212.08c
Sterling:
Net asset value - capital only: 163.90p
Net asset value - cum income: 169.34p
Share price: 158.50p
Total assets (including income): £320.5m
Discount to cum-income NAV: 6.4%
Gearing: Nil
Gearing range (as a % of gross assets): 0-20%
Net yield*: 4.7%
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 4.7%, and includes the 2024
interim dividend of 3.50 cents per share, declared on 31 May 2024, and paid to
shareholders on 01 July 2024 and the final dividend of 6.00 cents per share,
declared on 5 December 2024 payable to shareholders on 14 February 2025.
** Excluding 52,522,553 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 2023.
**** 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 as a % of net assets Country Gross market value as a % of net assets
Analysis Analysis
Financials 42.0 United Arab Emirates 12.7
Industrials 12.5 Saudi Arabia 12.5
Real Estate 11.5 Indonesia 12.2
Consumer Discretionary 10.4 Turkey 7.2
Communication Services 9.9 Poland 6.6
Materials 8.7 Philippines 6.4
Information Technology 8.1 Kazakhstan 6.3
Consumer Staples 4.2 Hungary 5.9
Health Care 3.3 Multi-International 5.1
Energy 1.8 Pakistan 5.0
----- Vietnam 4.6
112.4 Greece 4.3
----- Kenya 4.1
Short Positions -4.0 Bangladesh 3.1
Thailand 3.1
Malaysia 2.6
Singapore 2.3
Czech Republic 2.0
Georgia 1.8
Chile 1.6
Egypt 1.6
Cambodia 0.7
Romania 0.7
-----
112.4
-----
Short positions -4.0 ----
*reflects gross market exposure from contracts for difference (CFDs).
Market Exposure
31.01 2024 % 29.02 2024 % 31.03 2024 % 30.04 2024 % 31.05 2024 % 30.06 2024 % 31.07 2024 % 31.08 2024 % 30.09 2024 % 31.10 2024 % 30.11 2024 % 31.12 2024 %
Long 119.5 121.4 120.4 120.8 118.1 118.4 116.1 112.3 107.9 110.1 109.6 112.4
Short 3.6 3.5 2.7 2.3 2.4 2.9 3.5 3.6 3.9 3.6 3.3 4.0
Gross 123.1 124.9 123.1 123.1 120.5 121.3 119.6 115.9 111.8 113.7 112.9 116.4
Net 115.9 117.9 117.7 118.5 115.7 115.5 112.6 108.7 104.0 106.5 106.3 108.4
Ten Largest Investments
Company Country of Risk Gross market value as a % of net assets
Al Rajhi Bank Saudi Arabia 5.3
FPT Vietnam 4.6
Emaar Properties United Arab Emirates 4.5
Bank Central Asia Indonesia 4.5
LPP Poland 3.8
OTP Bank Hungary 3.8
Etihad Etisalat Saudi Arabia 3.3
Kaspi.Kz JCS Kazakhstan 3.2
Epam Systems Multi-International 3.1
Turkiye Is Bankasi Turkey 3.0
Commenting on the markets, Sam Vecht, Emily Fletcher and Sudaif Niaz,
representing the Investment Manager noted:
The Company’s NAV rose by 0.8 % in December 2024, underperforming its
benchmark the MSCI Frontier + Emerging Markets ex Selected Countries Index
(“Benchmark Index”) which returned +1.3%. For reference, the MSCI Emerging
Markets Index remained flat at 0.0% while the MSCI Frontier Markets Index
returned +0.2% over the same period. All performance figures are on a US
Dollar basis with net income reinvested.
December was another lackluster month for emerging market equities, with the
MSCI EM index trading sideways (-0.1%). Notably however, emerging markets
outperformed developed markets as the MSCI World Index fell sharply (-2.6%).
Latam (-7.3%) was the worst performing region for a second consecutive month,
EM Asia (+0.2%) posted muted gains, and EEMEA (+0.8%) was the best performing
region. UAE (+9.1%) was the best performing country in the index.
Although stock selection had a negative impact on the overall portfolio
returns, certain stocks performed well. The largest contributor to returns was
our position in UAE property developer Emaar Properties (+34.4%). The stock
price rose primarily on the back of a higher than expected dividend
announcement. Another strong performer was Digiplus Interactive Corporation
(+26.3%), the Philippines based gaming conglomerate, on the back of strong
activity indicators and plans to expand into other gaming verticals and new
markets. Frontken (+10.8%), a Malaysia-based company specialising in providing
equipment services to the semiconductor industry, was also additive.
Vietnamese IT services provider FPT Corp (+5.6%) also contributed positively.
On the flipside, Kaspi (-11.0%), the Kazakh e-commerce and payments platform,
was the biggest detractor, impacted by a weakening KZT. Philippines based
resort and casino operator Bloomberry Resorts (-15.3%), continued to detract
in December on the back of disappointing quarterly results. Ciputra
Development (-9.8%), the Indonesian property developer, extended its losses
from November and was another detractor over the month. We maintain our
conviction in this stock as demand for their diversified residential portfolio
should remain strong in the medium-term and the stock is attractively valued.
We made some changes to the portfolio in December. We topped up our holding in
IT services company EPAM systems as we believe the company should see an
acceleration in new business flow. We increased our exposure to Turkey by
initiating a position in Turkish bank Akbank, and we took some profits in
Emaar Properties. We reduced our exposure to Indonesian banks by exiting Bank
Negara and rotating into Telkom Indonesia which we believe is near the end of
its earnings downgrade cycle and the valuation looks attractive vs history.
We continue to see improving activity levels in some frontier and smaller
emerging markets. With inflation falling across many countries within our
universe, rate cuts should resume once US bond yields settle down. 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:
1BlackRock as at 31 December 2024
2MSCI as at 31 December 2024
22 January 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 (https://mb.cision.com/Main/22403/4094774/3218671.pdf)
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