BlackRock Frontiers Portfolio Update
17 April 2019 - 1:32AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMBRFI
BLACKROCK FRONTIERS INVESTMENT TRUST PLC (LEI: 5493003K5E043LHLO706)
All information is at 31 March 2019 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 -2.9 0.2 -14.7 40.4 36.5 75.3
Net asset value 1.1 3.7 -10.0 39.5 44.8 81.0
Benchmark (NR)** 1.7 3.7 2.6 50.9 47.6 66.8
MSCI Frontiers Index (NR) 3.3 4.5 -8.5 34.7 31.7 49.8
MSCI Emerging Markets Index (NR) 2.9 7.4 -0.3 49.6 53.3 38.9
US Dollars:
Share price -4.9 2.6 -20.7 27.5 7.0 47.2
Net asset value -1.0 6.2 -16.4 26.6 13.4 51.7
Benchmark (NR)** -0.4 6.1 -4.7 36.8 15.3 40.5
MSCI Frontiers Index (NR) 1.2 6.9 -15.0 22.1 2.9 25.2
MSCI Emerging Markets Index (NR) 0.8 9.9 -7.4 35.6 19.8 16.1
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
Ordinary Shares
US Dollar
Net asset value - capital only: 173.28c
Net asset value - cum income: 175.48c
Sterling:
Net asset value - capital only: 132.97p
Net asset value - cum income: 134.66p
Share price: 133.00p
Total assets (including income): GBP324.1m
Discount to cum-income NAV: 1.2%
Gearing: nil
Gearing range (as a % of gross assets): 0-20%
Net yield*: 4.8%
Ordinary shares in issue: 240,672,801
Ongoing charges**: 1.4%
Ongoing charges plus taxation and performance fee: 1.4%
*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 2018
final dividend of 4.40 cents per share and special dividend of 1.00 cents per
share, both of which were declared on 11 December 2018 and were paid to
shareholders on 7 February 2019. Also included is the 2018 interim dividend of
3.00 cents per share announced on 17 May 2018 and paid to shareholders on 29
June 2018.
**Calculated as a percentage of average net assets and using expenses,
excluding performance fees and interest costs for the year ended 30 September
2018.
Sector Gross market Country Gross market value as
Analysis value as a % of Analysis a % of net assets
net assets
Financials 31.0 Indonesia 14.2
Real Estate 16.8 Egypt 9.4
Consumer Discretionary 13.7 United Arab Emirates 8.9
Consumer Staples 10.5 Vietnam 8.9
Industrials 8.7 Malaysia 8.8
Energy 8.0 Argentina 8.3
Materials 7.7 Thailand 7.6
Health Care 7.6 Kazakhstan 7.2
Communication Services 6.6 Romania 5.4
Utilities 1.3 Nigeria 4.9
Information Technology 1.2 Greece 4.3
----- Philippines 3.1
113.1 Turkey 2.8
Short positions ----- Poland 2.7
-6.6 Kuwait 2.5
===== Ukraine 2.5
PAN-Africa 2.3
Qatar 2.3
Saudi Arabia 2.1
Kenya 2.0
Hungary 1.5
PAN-Asian 0.8
Morocco 0.6
-----
Total 113.1
-----
Short positions -6.6
=====
*reflects gross market exposure from contracts for difference (CFDs).
Market Exposure
30.04 31.05 30.06 31.07 31.08 30.09 31.10 30.11 31.12 31.01 28.02 31.03
2018 2018 2018 2018 2018 2018 2018 2018 2018 2019 2019 2019
% % % % % % % % % % % %
Long 113.2 119.5 116.2 113.9 107.7 107.7 107.8 108.1 109.3 115.1 112.9 113.1
Short 3.8 4.2 4.7 5.1 6.4 7.7 6.8 8.6 8.6 7.3 6.7 6.6
Gross 117.0 123.7 120.9 119.0 114.1 115.4 114.6 116.7 117.9 122.4 119.6 119.7
Net 109.4 115.3 111.5 108.8 101.3 100.0 101.0 99.5 100.7 107.8 106.2 106.5
Ten Largest Investments
Company Country of Risk Gross market value as a
% of net assets
Banco Macro Argentina 3.6
LT Group Philippines 3.1
Vincom Retail Vietnam 3.1
Eastern Tobacco Egypt 2.9
Thai Beverage Plc Thailand 2.8
Emaar Properties United Arab Emirates 2.8
Halyk Savings Bank Kazakhstan 2.8
Kaz Minerals Kazakhstan 2.7
Astra International Indonesia 2.7
Zenith Bank Nigeria 2.7
Commenting on the markets, Sam Vecht and Emily Fletcher, representing the
Investment Manager noted:
The Company's NAV returned -1.0%1 versus its benchmark, the MSCI New Frontier
benchmark, which fell by 0.4%2. For reference, the MSCI Frontiers Index rose by
1.2%2, and the MSCI Emerging Markets Index rose by 0.8%2, over the same period
(all performance figures are on a US Dollar basis with net income reinvested).
While the aggregate indices were relatively flat for the month overall, the
numbers mask quite a bit of movement at the country and stock level.
Stock selection in Indonesia, Egypt and Kuwait were the largest contributors to
returns in March. Indonesia was the strongest contributor to performance
during the month driven by our holdings across the market in real estate,
energy and financial sectors, which all posted double digit returns versus
+0.62% for MSCI Indonesia. Egyptian tobacco manufacturer, Eastern Tobacco
Company (+11%), drove performance in that market, alongside diagnostics
company, IDH (+7%). Our position in National Bank of Kuwait (+12%) was an
additional contributor.
Our Argentine positions were the largest detractors from returns over the month
as our holdings in financial, Banco Macro (-9%), commercial real estate
company, IRSA (-20%) and electric utility, Pampa Energia (-13%), all sold off.
The Argentine market was spooked by a selloff in Turkey as well as increasing
uncertainty around the country's presidential elections later in the year. Our
holdings in Turkey detracted after policymakers chose to try and control the
currency ahead of municipal elections, causing a squeeze in the offshore market
and ultimately a sharp selloff in both bonds and equities. Our holding in UAE
hospital operator NMC (-18%) was an additional detractor after reporting worse
than expected earnings results and corporate governance concerns.
In terms of positioning the portfolio, we returned from a trip to Nigeria with
a lower growth outlook for the country and have trimmed our holdings there. We
have concerns about the future direction of state intervention and see little
hope of the needed investment in infrastructure or measures to resolve the
fiscal deficit. In Turkey, where elections appear to have resulted in a
surprise loss for the AK party despite heavy campaigning, we are watching the
actions of the central bank and their actions to defend the currency, which run
the risk of hurting credibility with Turkey's creditors. We also had elections
in Thailand towards the end of the month although results won't be declared
until early May. Both sides are claiming victory which in our view only leads
to further uncertainty and deteriorating hope of any pick up in investment.
The country continues to lose market share to cheaper and better educated
markets, while valuations remain expensive and profitability depressed. Our
team will be travelling to the region this month to review the situation on the
ground and we will also be visiting Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
While emerging and frontier markets delivered a strong first quarter return for
2019, indicators of market sentiment look far from overstretched particularly
in the smaller markets in which we invest. We continue to position for a
positive environment for emerging and frontier markets in aggregate, supported
by a lower rate environment. Overall, the wide subset of countries that make
up our investible universe continue to exhibit strong GDP (Gross Domestic
Product) growth, have low government debt levels and represent an opportunity
to invest in companies with strong cash flow and high dividend yields, on some
of the lowest valuations in the world.
12 April 2019
Sources:
1BlackRock as at 31 March 2019
2MSCI as at 31 March 2019
ENDS
Latest information is available by typing www.blackrock.co.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 Kazakhstan
END
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