BlackRock North American Income Trust Plc - Portfolio Update

BLACKROCK NORTH AMERICAN INCOME TRUST plc (LEI: 549300WWOCXSC241W468)
All information is at 30 June 2019 and unaudited.

Performance at month end with net income reinvested

Source: BlackRock

¹ In line with the dividend policy announced in the Annual Report on 17 December 2018 of dividends amounting to 8.00p per share for the year ending 31 October 2019 and based on the share price as at close of business on 30 June 2019.

² Excluding 25,987,261 ordinary shares held in treasury.

³ Ongoing charges represent the management fee and all other operating expenses excluding interest as a % of average shareholders’ funds for the year ended 31 October 2018.

Tony DeSpirito, Franco Tapia and David Zhao, representing the Investment Manager, noted:

For the one-month period ended 30 June 2019, the Company’s NAV increased by 5.1% and the share price by 4.8% (all in sterling). The Company’s benchmark, the Russell 1000 Value Index, returned 6.1% for the period.

At the sector level, the largest contributor to relative performance was underweight exposure to the real estate sector. Within the sector, the relative outperformance was generated from our underweight exposure to equity real estate investment trusts (REITs). In utilities, our lack of exposure also proved beneficial, primarily among multi-utilities and electric utilities. Additionally, stock selection and allocation decisions in consumer discretionary proved additive. Notably, underweight exposure to the hotels, restaurants, & leisure industry proved beneficial, as did selection decisions among automobiles firms. Lastly, overweight exposure to the information technology sector contributed positively to relative results.

The largest detractor from relative performance was our cash balance. Among rapidly rising stock prices, our elevated cash balance proved detrimental. In consumer staples, stock selection in the tobacco, personal products, and food products industries weighed on relative returns. Stock selection decisions in the materials sector also detracted from relative performance, primarily due to decisions made within the metals & mining industry. In health care, stock selection and overweight exposure to health care providers & services proved harmful, and in industrials, underweight exposure to machinery names hampered relative returns. Lastly, stock selection in communication services and energy hindered relative performance.

The portfolio’s option overwriting strategy detracted from performance in June amid rising U.S. stock prices.

Transactions/Options

Transactions: In June, the portfolio initiated a new position in Sony. We also added to existing positions in Williams and First Energy. Conversely, we exited our positions in Anadarko Petroleum, Honeywell International and Masco, and trimmed our existing positions in Oracle  and ONEOK.

Options:  As of 30 June 2019, the Company’s options exposure was 15.7% and the delta of the options 83.2. 

Positioning

As of the period end, the Company’s largest overweight positions relative to the benchmark were in the information technology, health care and financials sectors. The Company’s largest underweight positions relative to the benchmark were in the real estate, utilities and industrials sectors.

Source: BlackRock. Data as of 30 June 2019.

17 July 2019

Latest information is available by typing blackrock.co.uk/brna 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.