REG-BlackRock Frontiers Investment Trust Plc: Portfolio Update
19/02/2025 17:15
BLACKROCK FRONTIERS INVESTMENT TRUST PLC (LEI: 5493003K5E043LHLO706)
All information is at 31 January 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 1.7 11.2 13.9 41.0 68.7 169.7
Net asset value 2.4 7.0 13.7 35.8 73.5 192.5
Benchmark (NR)** 2.8 4.5 9.8 12.9 26.0 99.0
MSCI Frontiers Index (NR) 3.8 6.0 14.4 3.7 19.5 95.3
MSCI Emerging Markets Index (NR) 2.6 1.4 17.6 5.7 23.2 73.8
US Dollars:
Share price 1.0 7.5 11.2 30.8 59.2 116.1
Net asset value 1.6 3.4 11.0 25.9 63.7 134.0
Benchmark (NR)** 1.9 1.0 7.1 4.5 18.7 59.8
MSCI Frontiers Index (NR) 3.0 2.4 11.6 -3.9 12.6 55.6
MSCI Emerging Markets Index (NR) 1.8 -2.0 14.8 -2.1 16.1 38.5
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: 208.68c
Net asset value - cum income: 209.46c
Sterling:
Net asset value - capital only: 167.94p
Net asset value - cum income: 168.58p
Share price: 156.50p
Total assets (including income): £319.1m
Discount to cum-income NAV: 7.2%
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
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 44.9 Saudi Arabia 13.4
Industrials 12.0 United Arab Emirates 13.2
Real Estate 11.4 Indonesia 12.0
Consumer Discretionary 10.5 Turkey 8.3
Communication Services 10.1 Poland 7.3
Materials 10.0 Kazakhstan 6.4
Information Technology 9.0 Hungary 6.2
Consumer Staples 4.7 Multi-International 6.0
Health Care 4.1 Philippines 5.7
Energy 1.8 Pakistan 5.3
----- Vietnam 4.8
118.5 Greece 4.5
----- Kenya 4.1
Short Positions -4.2 Thailand 3.4
Bangladesh 3.2
Malaysia 2.8
Czech Republic 2.3
Singapore 2.2
Georgia 1.9
Chile 1.7
Egypt 1.6
Romania 1.5
Cambodia 0.7
-----
118.5
-----
Short positions -4.2 ----
*reflects gross market exposure from contracts for difference (CFDs).
Market Exposure
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 % 31.01 2025 %
Long 121.4 120.4 120.8 118.1 118.4 116.1 112.3 107.9 110.1 109.6 112.4 118.5
Short 3.5 2.7 2.3 2.4 2.9 3.5 3.6 3.9 3.6 3.3 4.0 4.2
Gross 124.9 123.1 123.1 120.5 121.3 119.6 115.9 111.8 113.7 112.9 116.4 122.7
Net 117.9 117.7 118.5 115.7 115.5 112.6 108.7 104.0 106.5 106.3 108.4 114.3
Ten Largest Investments
Company Country of Risk Gross market value as a % of net assets
Al Rajhi Bank Saudi Arabia 5.6
Emaar Properties United Arab Emirates 4.8
FPT Vietnam 4.8
Bank Central Asia Indonesia 4.3
OTP Bank Hungary 4.3
LPP Poland 4.1
Etihad Etisalat Saudi Arabia 3.6
Epam Systems Multi-International 3.4
Kaspi.Kz JCS Kazakhstan 3.2
PZU Poland 3.2
Commenting on the markets, Sam Vecht, Emily Fletcher and Sudaif Niaz,
representing the Investment Manager noted:
The Company’s NAV rose by 1.6% in January, slightly underperforming its
benchmark the MSCI Frontier + Emerging Markets ex Selected Countries Index
(“Benchmark Index”) which returned +1.9%. For reference, the MSCI Emerging
Markets Index returned +1.8% while the MSCI Frontier Markets Index returned
+3.0% over the same period. All performance figures are on a US Dollar basis
with net income reinvested.
Emerging Markets (+1.8%) posted moderate gains in January 2025, but still
underperformed developed markets which rose by 3.6%. LatAm and EMEA
outperformed while EM Asia lagged. LatAm recorded a strong recovery in January
at +9.5% (from -7.3% in December’24). EMEA also posted healthy gains of
+4.5% while EM Asia (+0.8%) lagged.
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 Hungarian bank OTP (+13.7%). The stock reached an all-time
high in January 2025. Another positive contributor was our holding in Sea Ltd
(+14.6%), a Singapore based global consumer internet company, helped by strong
growth in its e-commerce business. Polish exposure through insurance company
PZU (+11.1%) also helped, as the Polish market performed strongly over the
month. IT services company EPAM (+8.6%) was also additive.
On the flipside, Frontken (-15.2%), a Malaysia-based company specialising in
providing equipment services to the semiconductor industry, was the largest
detractor over the month, pulling back after a strong December 2024 as
investors questioned implications of new chip restrictions on the semi
supply-chain as well as impact from DeepSeek’s new Large Language Model. The
Philippines had a tough January, declining by 9.8%. This impacted our holdings
in Ayala land (-15.7%), the Philippine's based property developer, and resort
and casino operator Bloomberry Resorts (-25.8%). Wizz Air (-11.3%), the
Hungarian low-cost carrier, was another detractor. The share price declined
following the company's announcement that they would be revising down their
guidance for CY25 earnings.
We made few changes to the portfolio in January 2025. We topped up our holding
in Turkish gold mine operator Eldorado Gold. We also added to our holding in
Banca Transilvania, a Romanian bank. We believe the benefits from the merger
with OTP Bank Romania, scheduled for end February 2025, is underappreciated by
the market. Elsewhere, we trimmed our holding in Sea Ltd on the back of strong
performance.
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 January 2025
2MSCI as at 31 January 2025
19 February 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/22403/4108095/3275047.pdf)
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