REG-BlackRock Frontiers Investment Trust Plc: Portfolio Update
24/04/2025 14:45
BLACKROCK FRONTIERS INVESTMENT TRUST PLC (LEI: 5493003K5E043LHLO706)
All information is at 31 March 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 -6.7 -4.5 1.0 30.9 120.9 153.3
Net asset value -3.3 -1.6 2.1 28.1 134.6 181.0
Benchmark (NR)** -0.9 -0.7 1.7 1.3 57.1 92.2
MSCI Frontiers Index (NR) 0.3 4.7 9.8 7.6 54.3 96.9
MSCI Emerging Markets Index (NR) -1.8 -0.1 5.8 6.5 40.8 69.2
US Dollars:
Share price -4.3 -1.5 3.3 28.5 130.2 110.8
Net asset value -0.8 1.5 4.3 25.7 144.5 133.5
Benchmark (NR)** 1.6 2.3 3.9 -0.7 63.5 60.4
MSCI Frontiers Index (NR) 2.9 7.9 12.2 5.4 60.6 63.0
MSCI Emerging Markets Index (NR) 0.6 2.9 8.1 4.4 46.6 40.1
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: 207.19c
Net asset value - cum income: 209.06c
Sterling:
Net asset value - capital only: 160.51p
Net asset value - cum income: 161.96p
Share price: 147.00p
Total assets (including income): £306.5m
Discount to cum-income NAV: 9.2%
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 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 paid to shareholders on 14 February 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 as a % of net assets Country Gross market value as a % of net assets
Analysis Analysis
Financials 46.1 Saudi Arabia 15.8
Industrials 12.6 Indonesia 11.4
Real Estate 12.2 United Arab Emirates 10.8
Consumer Discretionary 10.8 Poland 8.4
Materials 9.8 Turkey 7.7
Communication Services 9.0 Hungary 6.9
Information Technology 7.1 Kazakhstan 6.4
Consumer Staples 5.5 Philippines 5.6
Health Care 3.8 Pakistan 4.9
Energy 1.6 Multi-International 4.9
----- Greece 4.9
118.5 Thailand 4.6
----- Vietnam 3.7
Short Positions -4.3 Kenya 3.2
Bangladesh 3.2
Malaysia 2.9
Czech Republic 2.5
Georgia 2.4
Chile 2.2
Singapore 1.8
Romania 1.7
Egypt 1.7
Cambodia 0.9
-----
118.5
-----
Short positions -4.3 ----
*reflects gross market exposure from contracts for difference (CFDs).
Market Exposure
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 % 28.02 2025 % 31.03 2025 %
Long 120.8 118.1 118.4 116.1 112.3 107.9 110.1 109.6 112.4 118.5 121.0 118.5
Short 2.3 2.4 2.9 3.5 3.6 3.9 3.6 3.3 4.0 4.2 3.9 4.3
Gross 123.1 120.5 121.3 119.6 115.9 111.8 113.7 112.9 116.4 122.7 124.9 122.8
Net 118.5 115.7 115.5 112.6 108.7 104.0 106.5 106.3 108.4 114.3 117.1 114.2
Ten Largest Investments
Company Country of Risk Gross market value as a % of net assets
Al Rajhi Bank Saudi Arabia 5.8
Emaar Properties United Arab Emirates 4.7
OTP Bank Hungary 4.7
LPP Poland 4.6
Bank Mandiri Indonesia 4.2
PZU Poland 3.8
Etihad Etisalat Saudi Arabia 3.8
FPT Vietnam 3.7
Eldorado Gold Turkey 3.4
CP All Thailand 3.3
Commenting on the markets, Sam Vecht and Emily Fletcher, representing the
Investment Manager noted:
The Company’s NAV fell by 0.8% in March, underperforming its benchmark, the
MSCI Frontier + Emerging Markets ex Selected Countries Index (“Benchmark
Index”) which returned +1.6%. For reference, the MSCI Emerging Markets Index
returned +0.6% while the MSCI Frontier Markets Index returned +2.9% over the
same period. All performance figures are on a US Dollar basis with net income
reinvested.
Emerging Markets were marginally positive in March 2025 (+0.6%) outperforming
Developed Markets by 5.1%, the highest margin since November 2022. Initial
gains were wiped out at month-end in anticipation of reciprocal tariffs to be
announced on 2 April 2025. While EM Asia was flat, LatAm posted a return of
+4.8%, standing at the top of the global performance table, only surpassed by
Emerging Europe. Emerging Europe has been a significant beneficiary of policy
shifts emanating from Germany/the EU which have resulted in GDP upgrades in
the region and a resurgent EUR.
Although stock selection had a negative impact on the overall portfolio
returns, certain stocks performed well. The largest contributor to returns was
our off-benchmark position in Eldorado Gold (+21.8%), the Turkish gold mine
operator. The rise in gold prices has pushed the stock higher. Our Financials
exposure across region also did well. Indonesian Bank Mandiri (+13.2%), Kazakh
Halyk Bank (+22.6%) and Czech Republic based Moneta Money Bank (+12.2%) were
positive contributors. The latter performed well primarily on the back of
strong lending volumes amid stable yields in the region.
On the flipside, our IT services exposure detracted. The sector sold off more
broadly on the back of tariff concerns and their potential impact on US
growth. All three, Vietnamese IT services company FPT (-13.9%), UK based
Endava Systems (-18.4%) and multi-national EPAM Systems (-18.1%) affected
performance. Our holdings in Turkish banks Akbank (-24.1%) and Turkiye Is
Bankasi (-20.8%) also detracted over the month given the recent political
instability in the country.
We made a few changes to the portfolio in March 2025. We increased our
exposure to banks to take advantage of recent weakness, particularly in Turkey
where locals’ confidence in the orthodox monetary and fiscal policies
sustained despite the political unrest. We also added to Lion Finance Group,
Georgia’s second largest bank, as we expect positive earnings revisions for
the bank. We trimmed our holdings in Lucky Cement, the Pakistani conglomerate
with businesses in local cement production, locking in profits after recent
strong performance. We exited our position in the Kenyan mobile network
operator Safaricom to reduce exposure to Kenya amidst fiscal challenges.
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 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:
1BlackRock as at 31 March 2025
2MSCI as at 31 March 2025
24 April 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/22403/4140016/3408625.pdf)
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