Portfolio Update

BLACKROCK LATIN AMERICAN INVESTMENT TRUST PLC (LEI: UK9OG5Q0CYUDFGRX4151)
All information is at31 January 2018 and unaudited.

Performance at month end with net income reinvested   

	One month	Three months	One  year	Three years	Five years	^^Since 31.03.06
Sterling:
Net asset value^	7.8	9.0	17.5	42.5	6.3	110.0
Share price	8.3	6.0	21.3	43.1	6.6	98.5
MSCI EM Latin America	7.7	7.2	15.5	43.8	4.9	123.9
US Dollars:
Net asset value^	13.3	16.8	32.9	34.9	-4.5	72.4
Share price	13.8	13.5	37.2	35.5	-4.3	62.9
MSCI EM Latin America	13.2	14.7	30.5	36.2	-5.9	83.6

^cum income
^^Date which BlackRock took over the investment management of the Company.
Sources: BlackRock, Datastream, Standard & Poor’s Micropal

At month end
Net asset value – capital only:	561.04p
Net asset value – cum income:	565.95p
Share price:	498.00p
Total Assets#:	£238.4m
Discount (share price to cum income NAV):	12.0%
Average discount* over the month – cum income:	13.3%
Net gearing at month end**:	6.6%
Gearing range (as a % of net assets):	0-25%
Net yield##:	2.3%
Ordinary shares in issue***:	39,369,620
Ongoing charges****:	1.2%

#Total assets include current year revenue.
##Calculated using total dividends declared in the last 12 months as at the date of this announcement as a percentage of month end share price.
*The discount is calculated using the cum income NAV (expressed in sterling terms).
**Net cash/net gearing is calculated using debt at par, less cash and cash equivalents and fixed interest investments as a percentage of net assets.
***Excluding 2,071,662 shares held in treasury.
****Calculated as a percentage of average net assets and using expenses, excluding performance fees and interest costs for the year ended 31 December 2016.

Geographic Exposure

	% of Total Assets	% of Equity Portfolio *		MSCI EM Latin American Index
Brazil	67.6	67.8		59.6
Mexico	23.5	23.6		23.7
Argentina	3.8	3.9		0.0
Peru	2.6	2.6		3.2
Chile	1.8	1.8		10.1
Colombia	0.3	0.3		3.4
Net current assets (inc. Fixed interest)	0.4	0.0		0.0
	-----	-----		-----
Total	100.0	100.0		100.0
	-----	-----		-----

Sector	% of Equity Portfolio *	% of Benchmark
Financials	31.0	32.0
Materials	15.6	15.9
Consumer Staples	13.7	15.7
Consumer Discretionary	12.4	5.3
Energy	10.1	9.5
Telecommunication Services	7.2	6.2
Industrials	5.9	6.1
Utilities	1.9	5.5
Real Estate	1.3	1.4
Information Technology	0.5	1.4
Health Care	0.4	1.0
	-----	-----
Total	100.0	100.0
	-----	-----

*excluding net current assets & fixed interest

Ten Largest Equity Investments (in percentage order)

Company	Country of Risk	% of Equity Portfolio	% of Benchmark
Itau Unibanco	Brazil	8.4	7.4
Vale	Brazil	7.7	5.7
Banco Bradesco	Brazil	7.4	7.0
Petrobras	Brazil	7.3	6.2
America Movil	Mexico	5.4	4.4
AmBev	Brazil	4.8	4.5
Femsa	Mexico	3.6	2.6
B3	Brazil	3.2	2.3
Grupo Financiero Banorte	Mexico	2.7	2.2
Rumo Logistica Operada Multimodal	Brazil	2.6	0.7

Commenting on the markets, Will Landers, representing the Investment Manager noted;

For the month of January 2018, the Company’s NAV rose by 7.8%* with the share price rising by 8.3%*. The Company’s benchmark, the MSCI EM Latin America Index, rose by 7.7%^ (all performance figures are in sterling terms with income reinvested).

Our long time underweight to Chile was the top contributor to relative performance with the market being a laggard in the Latin American region. In particular, the absence from the portfolio of SQM (a Chilean chemical company and one of the leading Lithium producers in the world) contributed most to performance on a relative basis.  The stock was down in line with other Lithium stocks after SQM finally reached a deal with the Chilean Government to increase its production, which created fears of oversupply in the market. On the other hand, our stock selection in Brazil detracted most from relative performance. Specifically, no positioning in Itausa (a conglomerate company primarily engaged in the banking sector) given our preference of Itau, was the biggest individual detractor as the stock rallied in line with the rest of the market in Brazil. The overweight in Vale, the world’s largest producer of iron ore and nickel, also detracted from relative returns amidst some negative news on capacity shutdowns in China.

Portfolio positioning remained relatively unchanged during the month.  Most notably we initiated a position in Gerdau, a Brazilian steel company, due to expectations of improving demand in Brazil. This was partially funded by a reduction in the portfolio’s holding in Credicorp (a leading financial holding in Peru), which locked in profits at the same time. We also increased our position in Azul, where management remains confident with the capacity up-gauging strategy, with load factors on new planes being delivered in to Azul's fleet coming in higher than anticipated. Azul’s ancillary revenue strategy is also outperforming initial expectations as competitors have followed with charging for first checked baggage in Brazil with minimal pushback from customers. The portfolio ended the month being overweight Brazil and Mexico while being underweight Chile, Colombia and Peru. We also maintain an off-benchmark allocation to Argentina. At the sector level, we are overweight consumer discretionary and real estate, while being underweight utilities and financials.

After Latin American equity markets outperformed global equities during January, we maintain our positive view for 2018.  Despite the recent volatility of global equities, we continue to look at high beta Brazil as our top country overweight given: a) signs of economic recovery apparent across economic sectors, leading consensus GDP growth expectations to 3% in 2018; b) persistently low inflation has led the Central Bank to once again cut rates at its first meeting of 2018 – rate cuts now total 750 basis points so far, resulting in the SELIC (Sistema Especial de Liquidação e Custodia, the Brazilian Central Bank interest rate) hitting its lowest point in history at 6.75%; and c) continued focus on the reform agenda. We expect the reform process to be the focus during the first quarter of the year, shifting to elections as the process starts officially in April. Meanwhile, the recent round of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) negotiations illustrated showed some progress but continued to show that the process will be long, reiterating our cautious view on Mexican growth, and therefore our underweight - uncertainties regarding the 1^st July presidential election add to our conviction on such positioning.  We continue to underweight Chile due to rich valuations and lack of free-float liquidity (President Piniera’s election seems mostly priced in), and have moved Peru to an underweight given stretched valuations and continued political gridlock limiting growth through investments. We maintain an underweight position in Colombia due to unattractive valuation levels while maintaining an overweight position in off-benchmark Argentina as that economy remains on its recovery path given greater support for the Macri administration following last year’s mid-term election.

*Source: BlackRock as of 31 January 2018
^Source: Datastream as of 31 January 2018

14 February 2018

ENDS

Latest information is available by typing www.blackrock.co.uk/brla 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.