Portfolio Update

BLACKROCK FRONTIERS INVESTMENT TRUST PLC (LEI: 5493003K5E043LHLO706)

All information is at 30 November 2018 and unaudited.

Performance at month end with net income reinvested.
 

	One  month	Three months	One  year	Three  years	Five  years	Since  Launch*
Sterling:
Share price	2.2	-2.1	-12.1	50.5	46.9	79.1
Net asset value	2.9	-1.8	-5.1	41.8	48.5	79.0
Benchmark (NR)**	2.2	-0.1	3.9	51.2	54.1	61.6
MSCI Frontiers Index (NR)	2.3	0.3	-5.8	37.1	39.8	47.5
MSCI Emerging Markets Index (NR)	4.3	-3.7	-3.6	54.5	41.0	32.6
US Dollars:
Share price	2.0	-3.9	-17.0	27.7	14.6	47.1
Net asset value	2.8	-3.6	-10.4	20.2	15.8	46.8
Benchmark (NR)**	2.1	-1.9	-2.1	28.2	20.1	33.2
MSCI Frontiers Index (NR)	2.2	-1.5	-11.2	16.2	8.9	20.7
MSCI Emerging Markets Index (NR)	4.1	-5.5	-9.1	31.0	9.9	8.5

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:	168.16c
Net asset value - cum income:	175.32c
Sterling:
Net asset value - capital only:	131.80p
Net asset value - cum income:	137.42p
Share price:	140.00p
Total assets (including income):	£280.7m
Premium to cum-income NAV:	1.9%
Gearing:	nil
Gearing range (as a % of gross assets):	0-20%
Net yield*:	3.7%
Ordinary shares in issue:	204,241,108
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 3.7% and includes the 2017 final dividend of 4.20 cents per share declared on 4 December 2017 and paid to shareholders on 9 February 2018 and 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.

C Shares
US Dollar
Net asset value - capital only:	127.85c
Net asset value - cum income:	127.86c
Sterling:
Net asset value - capital only:	100.21p
Net asset value - cum income:	100.22p
Share price:	100.00p
Total assets (including income):	£45.0m
Premium to cum-income NAV:	2.2%
Gearing:	nil
Gearing range (as a % of gross assets):	0-20%
Net yield*:	nil
C Shares in issue:	44,927,580

The following information relates specifically to the ordinary share portfolio.

Sector Analysis	Gross market value as a % of net assets		Country Analysis	Gross market value as a % of net assets
Financials	30.3		Indonesia	13.1
Consumer Discretionary	14.2		Argentina	9.1
Real Estate	13.6		Vietnam	8.8
Materials	12.2		Egypt	8.1
Consumer Staples	10.2		Thailand	6.9
Energy	8.4		Kazakhstan	6.8
Health Care	7.0		Romania	6.2
Industrials	5.6		Nigeria	6.1
Communication Services	5.3		United Arab Emirates	6.1
Information Technology	1.3		Malaysia	4.8
	-----		Ukraine	4.2
Total	108.1		Hungary	3.3
	-----		Saudi Arabia	3.3
Short positions	-8.6		Greece	3.1
	=====		Qatar	3.1
			PAN-Africa	2.1
			Philippines	2.1
			Poland	2.0
			Colombia	1.9
			Kenya	1.9
			Kuwait	1.8
			Tanzania	1.5
			PAN-Asian	1.0
			Morocco	0.8
				-----
			Total	108.1
				-----
			Short positions	-8.6
				=====

*reflects gross market exposure from contracts for difference (CFDs).

Market Exposure

	31.12  2017     %	31.01  2018     %	28.02  2018     %	31.03  2018     %	30.04  2018     %	31.05  2018     %	30.06  2018     %	31.07  2018     %	31.08  2018     %	30.09  2018     %	31.10  2018     %	30.11  2018     %
Long	113.3	110.2	102.1	97.0	113.2	119.5	116.2	113.9	107.7	107.7	107.8	108.1
Short	3.8	3.0	3.0	2.9	3.8	4.2	4.7	5.1	6.4	7.7	6.8	8.6
Gross	117.1	113.2	105.1	99.9	117.0	123.7	120.9	119.0	114.1	115.4	114.6	116.7
Net	109.5	107.2	99.1	94.1	109.4	115.3	111.5	108.8	101.3	100.0	101.0	99.5

Ten Largest Investments

Company	Country of Risk	Gross market value as a % of net assets
Astra International	Indonesia	5.2
Banco Macro	Argentina	4.2
Gedeon Richter	Hungary	3.3
Ooredoo	Qatar	3.1
Halyk Savings Bank	Kazakhstan	3.1
MHP	Ukraine	3.0
Zenith Bank	Nigeria	2.8
Emaar Development	United Arab Emirates	2.6
Siam Commercial Bank	Thailand	2.6
Semen Indonesia Persero	Indonesia	2.5

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

In November the Company’s NAV rose by 2.8%¹ (on a US Dollar basis with net income reinvested) versus its benchmark, the MSCI New Frontier benchmark, which rose by 2.1%². For reference, the Company’s previous benchmark, the MSCI Frontiers Index, rose by 2.2%² and the MSCI Emerging Markets Index rose by 4.1%² over the same period (all performance figures are on a US Dollar basis with income reinvested).

Emerging and Frontier Markets staged a relief rally in November, sparked by a more dovish stance from the US Federal Reserve, outperforming Developed Markets for the first time since March 2018. The energy sector lagged as Brent Oil fell by 20.8% during the month, the worst monthly performance for oil since the global financial crisis, due to concerns of over supply coupled with lower demand forecasts.  Interest rate sensitive markets such as Turkey (+13.1%) and Indonesia (+12.3%) were some of the best performing, as well as the Eastern European Markets of Estonia (+16.9%), Hungary (+8.8%) and Poland (+7.7%).  The Middle East markets of UAE (United Arab Emirates) (-5.3%) and Saudi Arabia (-3.1%) fared worse, reacting to the falling oil price.

Our positioning in Indonesia was the largest contributor to returns in November, through our long positions in auto parts company Astra International (+15%), cement company Semen Indonesia (+25%), property developer Ciputra (+36%) and retail operator Mitra Adiperkasa (+16%), which made up four of the top five contributors for the month.  The portfolio’s positions in Egypt through medical diagnostics company IDH (+16%) and tobacco company Eastern Company (+15%) also helped performance during the month.  Our holding in a Qatari telecom was an additional contributor.

Our positioning in Greece, Ukraine and UAE negatively impacted our performance during the month.  Our holdings in both Greek banks Alpha (-7%) and National Bank of Greece (-34%) detracted on renewed concerns of their capital needs.  In Ukraine both our long holdings,in meat producer MHP (-9.8%) and steel producer Ferrexpo (-16.2%) also detracted from our performance.  In the Middle East our holdings in UAE property developer Emaar (-11.9%) and hospital operator Care (-7.1%) were additional detractors.

In terms of positioning we made few changes to the portfolio in November. We allocated more capital to Indonesia, initiating a position in Semen Indonesia where we see operating profit accelerating above expectation. We also bought copper miner Kaz minerals in Kazakhstan where we see an underappreciation of their high quality assets and flexibility on capital expenditure spending which should protect the balance sheet in the case of stress.  We exited Thai petrochemical company Indorama on concern over weakening demand trends across developed markets.

2018 has seen Emerging and Frontier Markets de-rate considerably and whilst weaker exchange rates tighten financial conditions and will effect growth, we do not expect a sharp slow-down and many countries are in better shape than feared, creating significant pockets of value in our view.  In aggregate 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.

Sources:
*BlackRock as at 30 November 2018
**MSCI as at 30 November 2018

19 December 2018

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