REG-BlackRock Greater Europe Investment Trust Plc: Portfolio Update

Blackrock Greater Europe Investment TrustAnnouncement

26/02/2026 12:00

The information contained in this release was correct as at                   
              31 January 2026                               . Information on
the Company’s up to date net asset values can be found on the London Stock
Exchange website at:

 

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/news/market-news/market-news-home.html
                              .           

 

 

 

BLACKROCK GREATER EUROPE INVESTMENT TRUST PLC (LEI - 5493003R8FJ6I76ZUW55)

All information is at                                  31 January 2026        
                       and unaudited.          
          
                     Performance at month end with net income reinvested      
             
           

                              One  Month  Three  Months  One  Year  Three  Years  Launch  (20 Sep 04)  
                                                                                                       
 Net asset value (undiluted)  0.9%        -1.2%          -2.8%      19.0%         779.4%               
 Share price                  0.9%        -1.2%          -1.3%      19.8%         744.8%               
 FTSE World Europe ex UK      2.6%        6.0%           21.3%      46.6%         596.9%               

Sources: BlackRock and Datastream                    
           

 

At month end

 Net asset value (capital only):      616.62p     
 Net asset value (including income):  618.47p     
 Share price:                         586.00p     
 Discount to NAV (including income):  5.3%        
 Net gearing:                         2.3%        
 Net yield 1 :                        1.2%        
 Total assets (including income):     £573.1m     
 Ordinary shares in issue 2 :         92,661,158  
 Ongoing charges 3 :                  0.95%       
                                                  

 

1                      Based on a an interim dividend of 1.75p per share and
a final dividend of 5.40p per share for the year ended 31 August 2025.

2                      Excluding 25,267,780 shares held in treasury.         

          3                      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 finance costs,
direct transaction costs, custody transaction charges, VAT recovered,
taxation, write back of prior year expenses and certain non-recurring items
for the year ended 31 August 2025.

 

                          
 Sector Analysis          Total Assets (%)  
 Industrials              40.9              
 Financials               18.9              
 Technology               17.6              
 Consumer Discretionary   13.8              
 Health Care              7.7               
 Basic Materials          3.0               
 Utilities                0.4               
 Net Current Liabilities  -2.3              
                          -----             
                          100.0             
                          =====             
                                            
                                            
                                            
                                            
                                            
                                            
                                            
                                            
                                              
 Country Analysis         Total Assets (%)  
 France                   22.5              
 Netherlands              18.9              
 Switzerland              14.8              
 Germany                  6.9               
 Ireland                  6.2               
 Spain                    5.8               
 Belgium                  3.9               
 Finland                  3.7               
 Sweden                   3.1               
 Denmark                  3.1               
 United States            3.0               
 United Kingdom           2.9               
 Italy                    2.6               
 Norway                   2.6               
 Austria                  2.3               
 Net Current Liabilities  -2.3              
                          -----             
                          100.0             
                          =====             
                                            

 

 Top 10 holdings                 Country      Fund %  
 Safran                          France       6.9     
 ASML                            Netherlands  6.2     
 Compagnie Financiere Richemont  Switzerland  4.5     
 Schneider Electric              France       4.4     
 Belimo                          Switzerland  4.4     
 KBC Groep                       Belgium      3.8     
 Allied Irish Banks (AIB)        Ireland      3.8     
 Lonza Group                     Switzerland  3.8     
 BE Semiconductor                Netherlands  3.8     
 Kone                            Finland      3.6     
                                                      

 

Commenting on the markets, Stefan Gries and Brian Hall, representing the
Investment Manager noted:

 

During the month, the Company’s NAV rose +0.9% and the share price rose
+0.9%. For reference, the Europe ex UK market returned +2.6% during the
period.

 

Momentum trades continued in January, with many of last year’s outperformers
contributing to market gains while familiar themes, such as AI disruption,
wreaked further havoc on areas such as software, payments and information
services businesses. We had trimmed the portfolio’s exposure to this
headwind in Q4’25 and have continued to decrease what we see as risk skewed
to the downside, favouring to build on the portfolio’s overweights to areas
where earnings upside is increasingly well underpinned, such as the
semiconductor cycle that continues to see evidence of strengthening.

 

The macro backdrop has also been supportive with Q4’25 global growth
surprising to the upside. Strength in US GDP, +4.4% in 2025, has been
important for confidence after concerns around tariffs and the consumer. The
labour market there continues to plod along with no signs of anything
particularly sinister. While hiring hasn’t been overly strong, there has not
been an increase in firings on the other side as seen by the NFP (nonfarm
payroll) and initial jobless claims respectively. In Europe, Germany, Spain
and France have all surprised to the upside in Q4’25. We are seeing more
factory orders, higher business confidence, and consumer confidence improving.
However, geopolitics remain a wild card that is likely to keep volatility
elevated (e.g. US escalation in Venezuela, and rhetoric on Iran and Greenland)
apparent in the FX market in January as the USD weakened again.

 

Sector allocation effects were positive in January driven by overweight
positioning to industries benefiting from AI and European Defence spend while
remaining underweight consumer staples.

 

The AI loser narrative continued into the new year, bringing down shares of
positions including Adyen, RELX, SAP and Nemetschek. While we are awaiting
results from most, we received a pre-release from Nemetschek showing a +17%
year-on-year constant FX growth, 4% ahead of consensus expectations. SAP
reported, disappointing the market with their current cloud backlog (CCB) as
expectations were raised due to bullish communication from management in
December. This has since been attributed to some more complicated deals being
pushed out to 2026. We retain our fundamental view that the unique data bases
these companies hold, make the barriers to AI disruption high. However, we
must be pragmatic regarding the unknowns that come with rapid AI innovation.
For example, there may be the possibility for AI to imitate some of the
services typically sold alongside the proprietary data. We are on high alert
to any impacts this may have on company performance but are yet to see any.
Equally, it’s hard to dispel the market’s concerns. We have reduced some
of these holdings over the month as although we believe the companies are well
positioned individually, it is difficult to identify a catalyst that would
change market views and the significant volatility caused by AI loser basket
trading is likely to remain in the meantime.

 

A position in Richemont detracted with shares down despite reporting excellent
fiscal Q3 figures that included above-expectation organic growth of +14% in
the key Jewellery Maison division. Shares suffered in part from the surging
prices of precious metals, implying some pressure on gross margins and/or
material price increases to offset; and in part from read across of more
lackluster results from a peer.

 

Chemometec declined over the month despite limited company specific news. The
backdrop for cell counting equipment manufacturing remains strong, but
volatility in the share price can be expected for the smid-cap after strong
gains in late 2025.

 

BE Semiconductor was the top contributor over the month. Semiconductor
companies are starting to see a rush from customers to increase capacity to
serve growing AI needs, creating tight memory prices which benefit the wafer
fab equipment (WFE) names. A positive trading update from BESI shows strong
order growth of +43% quarter-on-quarter and +105% year-on-year. Optimism for
the broad industry also increased as ASML reported their largest booking
quarter ever at €13.2 billion, well above consensus expectations of €6.95
billion.

 

A position in Belimo rose as the company reported excellent preliminary FY'25
figures during January, showing an impressive acceleration in organic sales
growth to +26% in H2'25, arriving above guidance and market expectation driven
both by the booming data centre business and a notable acceleration in the
underlying 'core' business.

 

European defence companies bounced back after underperforming the market in
the tail end of 2025, boosting the portfolio’s holdings in Kongsberg and
Thales. Headlines continue to influence European defence shares and the lack
of progress on peace in addition to fresh geopolitical concerns from the US
escalation of military action in Venezuela, Iran, and Greenland saw a recovery
in the defence industry. Geopolitical headlines create volatility for these
shares, however we remain focused on the long-term investment thesis for the
sector – the requirement for Europe to rearm – which is not predicated on
a single current conflict.

 

Outlook

 

The global economy remains on solid footing, where the only significant
imbalance we can see is within sovereign debt markets, but for now that
remains contained with spreads at reasonable levels. We also have Germany
spending again. While there is dearth of evidence that this is providing a
benefit within corporates to date, it leaves an upside tailwind for the fiscal
impulse to be felt later on in the year. Meanwhile, the consumer remains
healthy in both balance sheet and profit and loss terms. Confidence in
spending that wealth has been low, though there are catalysts to loosen the
spending taps, particularly in the US as rates come down. The US 10-year yield
should fall with disinflationary impacts across most US sectors, as well as
disinflationary labour effects, leaving no reason to hold US rates at current
levels. The easier financial conditions could also provide a long-awaited
boost to activity within the industrial economy, which looks healthy as
corporate leverage in Europe is as low as it’s ever been and the US also
sits at very low levels. We continue to see a resilient bottom-up picture
which should support a change in market drivers in time once uncertainties
clear, adding breadth to what has been a very narrowly driven market.         
 

 

Europe remains home to many world-class franchises, companies owning core
technologies that make them the enablers of some of the large transformational
changes going on around us. We aim to align shareholder capital to those
businesses that are exposed to large and enduring spending streams. Overall,
we retain our core exposure to companies with predictable business models,
higher than average returns on capital, strong cash flow conversions and
opportunities to reinvest that cash flow into future growth projects at high
incremental returns.

 

26 February 2026

                       

ENDS

 

Latest information is available by typing                                 
www.blackrock.com/uk/brge                                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 the
Manager’s website (or any other website) is incorporated into, or forms part
of, this announcement.

 Release  (https://mb.cision.com/Main/22396/4312279/3954381.pdf)  



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