REG-BlackRock Frontiers Investment Trust Plc: Portfolio Update
21/07/2025 14:00
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 as a % of net assets Country Gross market value as a % of net assets
Analysis Analysis
Financials 53.8 Saudi Arabia 14.1
Real Estate 13.0 Turkey 11.2
Consumer Discretionary 12.0 United Arab Emirates 10.9
Industrials 10.9 Indonesia 10.8
Materials 9.1 Poland 10.1
Information Technology 7.2 Greece 7.5
Communication Services 5.8 Vietnam 6.2
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
-----
Short Positions -3.4 ----
*reflects gross market exposure from contracts for difference (CFDs).
Market Exposure
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 % 30.04 2025 % 31.05 2025 % 30.06 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:
1BlackRock as at 30 June 2025
2MSCI 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 (https://mb.cision.com/Main/22403/4209579/3586899.pdf)
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