Portfolio Update

BLACKROCK FRONTIERS INVESTMENT TRUST PLC

All information is at 30 April 2012 and unaudited.

Performance at month end with net income reinvested

                                  One      Three      Six     Year   Since
                                month     months   months  to date  launch*
Sterling:
Share price                     -2.1%      10.4%    10.2%    14.3%  -15.7%
Net asset value                 -2.2%       6.0%     9.5%     9.0%  -12.4%
MSCI Frontiers Index (NR)       -2.5%       1.0%    -0.3%     0.0%  -17.1%
MSCI EM Markets (NR)            -2.8%      -1.6%     3.3%     7.9%   -8.5%

US Dollars:
Net asset value                 -0.6%       9.1%    10.2%    14.0%   -8.8%
MSCI Frontiers Index (NR)       -0.9%       3.9%     0.3%     4.5%  -13.6%
MSCI EM Markets (NR)            -1.2%       1.2%     3.9%    12.7%   -4.7%

Sources: BlackRock and Standard & Poor's Micropal

* 17 December 2010.

At month end
US Dollar:
Net asset value - capital only:               132.82c
Net asset value - cum income:                 136.11c
Sterling:
Net asset value - capital only:                81.79p
Net asset value - cum income:                  83.82p
Share price:                                   82.25p
Total assets (including income):               £79.4m
Discount to cum-income NAV:                      1.9%
Gearing:                                          nil
Net yield:                                       2.3%
Ordinary shares in issue:                  94,766,267

Benchmark
Sector Analysis   Gross assets(%)*         Country Analysis  Gross assets(%)*

Financials              30.0               Nigeria                    14.5
Industrials             15.6               Qatar                      13.5
Consumer Staples        13.7               Kazakhstan                 12.3
Energy                  11.8               United Arab Emirates        9.8
Telecommunications      11.6               Saudi Arabia                7.3
Materials                5.0               Ukraine                     7.3
Healthcare               4.6               Kuwait                      5.9
Utilities                4.2               Croatia                     3.9
Consumer Discretionary   3.7               Iraq                        3.3
Technology               0.6               Vietnam                     3.1
                       -----               Bangladesh                  2.9
Total                  100.8               Argentina                   2.8
                       -----               Pakistan                    2.5
Short positions         -2.1               Pan Africa                  2.4
                       =====               Panama                      2.3
                                           Kenya                       1.9
                                           Algeria                     1.6
                                           Romania                     1.3
                                           Oman                        1.1
                                           Slovenia                    1.1
                                                                     -----
                                                                     100.8
                                                                     =====
                                           Short positions            -2.1
                                                                     =====
*reflects gross market exposure from contracts for difference (CFDs)

Market Exposure

       30.06  31.07  31.08  30.09  31.10  30.11 31.12 31.01 29.02 31.03  30.04 
        2011   2011   2011   2011   2011   2011  2011  2012  2012  2012   2012 
           %      %      %      %      %      %     %     %     %     %      %
                                                                                  
Long   103.3  103.6  105.2  100.7  101.1  103.4  97.0 106.2 103.9  98.3  100.8
Short    2.7    2.8    7.8    7.4    6.2    4.8   3.2   3.1   5.2   3.0    2.1
Gross  106.0  106.4  113.0  108.1  107.3  108.2 100.2 109.3 109.1 101.3  102.9
Net    100.6  100.8   97.4   93.3   94.9   98.6  93.8 103.1  98.7  95.3   98.7

Ten Largest Equity Investments (in alphabetical order)

Company                              Country of Risk
Air Arabia                           United Arab Emirates
Commercial Bank of Qatar             Qatar
First Gulf Bank                      United Arab Emirates
Halyk Savings Bank                   Kazakhstan
Hrvatski Telekomunikacije            Croatia
Kazmunaigas Exploration              Kazakhstan
MHP                                  Ukraine
National Mobile Telecommunications   Kuwait
Qatar Electricity & Water            Qatar
Zenith                               Nigeria

Commenting on the markets, Sam Vecht, representing the Investment Manager
noted:

Market performance

The MSCI Frontiers Market Index fell by 0.9% in April on a US$ basis. Global
markets retreated after a strong start to the year as voters in Europe delivered a
strong verdict against austerity measures amidst fragile economic conditions. 
This public backlash against austerity has cast doubt over the ability of the
Eurozone to make the necessary fiscal and political changes to overcome the
crisis.

In Frontier Markets, the strongest performers were Nigeria and Vietnam, rising
10% and 7% respectively.  The strong performance in Nigeria was driven by the
financial sector. Reforms implemented in 2009 to deal with Nigeria's financial
crisis have started to pay dividends. Nigerian banks delivered strong earnings
growth for the first quarter of 2012 benefitting from well-capitalized, liquid
balance sheets.

Vietnam continued its good run, which has seen the bourse gain over 35%
year-to-date, rebounding strongly after poor performance in 2011. The shift in
sentiment in Vietnam reflects policy measures to address inflation which
declined to 10.5%, down from August's high of 23%.

The weakest performing market was Argentina, as headlines were dominated by the
President Christina De Kirchner's decision to nationalize energy company YPF,
which is majority owned by Spanish oil producer Repsol. This weighed heavily on
the market, with Argentinian stocks falling nearly 30% in April following the
announcement. The Serbian market also did poorly, falling 7%, due to
uncertainty over the ongoing elections, amid a struggling economy with 24%
unemployment and a widening current account deficit.

Portfolio performance

In April, The Company's NAV fell by 0.6%, outperforming the MSCI Frontier
Markets Index by 0.3% (all calculations on a US$ total return basis with net income
reinvested).

The largest single contributor to performance over the month was in Nigerian
financial, United Bank for Africa which rose by nearly 50% in April. We
initiated the position in February after the company announced a profit warning
on 2011 earnings. The stock was extremely cheap and significant write-downs had
masked strong underlying profitability driven by a low-cost deposit base.

The Company's holding in Bangladeshi Telecom, Grameenphone was also a strong
performer in April as the Bangladeshi market continued to rebound following
positive statements from the IMF and approval of a US$1bn credit facility. Also
performing well was the Pakistani industrial company, Lucky Cement which
announced a 90% increase in profit, driven by a surge in the price of cement.

Detracting from performance in April were holdings in Argentina following the
nationalization of energy company YPF. The decision has negatively impacted the
investment climate in Argentina with a number of companies including Repsol,
Vale and Enel now reviewing future activity in Argentina.

Activity

At the end of April, the Company was holding 47 long positions and 2 short
positions in stocks across 21 markets.

In April we participated in the IPO in NMC Health, a leading healthcare
provider in the UAE listed in the UK and expected to be included in the FTSE
250 index. The company is the leading operator of private hospitals across the
UAE with a significant expansion programme underway. The Company has been
gradually increasing its exposure to the UAE, as valuations of UAE companies
remain depressed despite a significant improvement in economic activity and the
property market.

We also added to the position in Norwegian-listed energy company, DNO, which
operates in Northern Iraq, which the team has long believed to be the most
exciting energy region globally with significant resource prospects. At the end
of April, DNO released its annual statement of reserves which revealed a 92%
increase of recoverable reserves for the Tawke field in the Kurdistan region of
Iraq.

Market Outlook

We remain bullish on Frontier Markets and we continue to see a wealth of
investment opportunities, with valuations and growth prospects superior to
developed and emerging market peers. We expect Frontier Markets to continue to
demonstrate low correlations with global markets at a time when global
conditions remain challenging. The asset class is under owned by institutional
investors and is fairly disconnected from global capital flows. Domestic
factors such as positive structural reforms, improving banking liquidity and
declining inflation are likely to dominate global factors as drivers of market
performance and widen the appeal of the asset class.

The company remains overweight Nigeria, where financials trade on a low price
to earnings ratio of 4-6, offering dividend yields of 6-10%. We expect Nigerian
financials to continue delivering strong earnings growth having addressed
legacy bad debt problems and deploying significant pools of cheap deposits in
high yielding assets. We are also bullish on the medium term prospects for
Saudi Arabia, despite recent volatility in the market. Consumer spending trends
remain robust even in comparison to a strong 2011 which was boosted by direct
stimulus measures. Rising energy production alongside US$570bn of foreign
reserves also provides a strong buffer against external shocks.

17 May 2012

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 the Manager's website (or any other
website) is incorporated into, or forms part of, this announcement.