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About this investment trust

Capital at risk. The value of investments and the income from them can fall as well as rise and are not guaranteed. Investors may not get back the amount originally invested.

The Company aims to achieve an annual dividend target and, over the long term, capital growth by investing primarily in securities of companies operating in the mining and energy sectors.

Why choose it?

Mining and energy companies lie at the heart of the global economy. Without them, countries cannot grow and develop. Mining companies provide everything from materials to build wind turbines to lithium for electric cars. They play an important role in the long-term de-carbonisation of the global economy. Energy companies power our cars, our homes and drive economic development. On the sustainable energy side, the path to a lower carbon global economy is forecast to disrupt many industries and business models. However, this evolution is also expected to create remarkable opportunities. Investment in a specialist trust gives targeted exposure to these important companies, as it is positioned to capture such industry shifts and reap the benefits from this transition.

Suited to…

Investors looking for a specialist energy and mining trust that provides long-term diversification of income and capital, geared to economic expansion. These companies can be volatile, so some tolerance for market uncertainty is important.

What are the risks?

  • Capital at risk.The value of investments and the income from them can fall as well as rise and are not guaranteed. Investors may not get back the amount originally invested.
  • Overseas investment will be affected by movements in currency exchange rates.
  • Emerging market investments are usually associated with higher investment risk than developed market investments. Therefore the value of these investments may be unpredictable and subject to greater variation.
  • Mining shares typically experience above average volatility when compared to other investments. Trends which occur within the general equity market may not be mirrored within mining securities.
  • Investment strategies, such as borrowing, used by the Trust can result in even larger losses suffered when the value of the underlying investments fall.

Useful information

Capital at risk. The value of investments and the income from them can fall as well as rise and are not guaranteed. Investors may not get back the amount originally invested.

Fees & Charges

Annual Expenses as at Date: 30/11/2022

Ongoing Charge (including any Performance Fee): For the year to 30 November 2022, the Company’s Ongoing Charges were 1.13% of net assets. The Company’s Ongoing Charges (as defined in the Glossary of the annual report for the year to 30 November 2022) are capped at 1.25% of net assets.

Important Notice: Key Investor Document (KID) – Costs disclosures error

During the period 22 July 2022 – 30 September 2022 the KID contained incorrect costs data as set out in the Previously stated costs tables below. The figures that should have been published are set out in the Corrected costs tables.

Previously stated costs (as per KID published 22 July 2022 based on data as at 31 March 2022):

Costs over time

 

If you cash in after 1 year

If you cash in after 3 years

If you cash in after 5 years

Total costs (GBP)

216

867

2070

Impact on return (RIY) per year

2.16%

2.19%

2.22%

Composition of costs

Ongoing costs

Other ongoing costs

1.45%

Corrected costs (based on data as at 31 March 2022):

Costs over time

 

If you cash in after 1 year

If you cash in after 3 years

If you cash in after 5 years

Total costs (GBP)

217

 

874

 

2,086

 

Impact on return (RIY) per year

2.17%

2.20%

2.24%

Composition of costs

Ongoing costs

Other ongoing costs

1.46%

An updated KID with cost data as at 31 March 2022 was published on 30 September 2022.

There has been no financial impact to the Fund as a consequence of this error.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience that may have been caused as a result of this matter. You are not required to take any action as a result of this statement. If you have any queries regarding the above, please contact our Investor Services Team by email at uk.investor@blackrock.com. Alternatively, please feel free to contact us by telephone on 0800 44 55 22, quoting the relevant account number where applicable. Our lines are open from 8.30am to 6.00pm, Monday to Friday. For your protection, telephone calls may be recorded.

Management Fee Summary: The Company’s management fee is 80bps on gross assets per annum.

  • ISIN: GB00B0N8MF98

    Sedol: B0N8MF9

    Bloomberg: BERI:LN

    Reuters: BERI.L

    Ticker: BERI/LON

  • Name of Company: BlackRock Fund Managers Limited

    Telephone: 020 7743 3000

    Email: cosec@blackrock.com

    Website: www.blackrock.com/uk

    Correspondence Address: Investor Services,

    BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Limited

    12 Throgmorton Avenue

    London

    EC2N 2DL

    Name of Registrar: Computershare PLC

    Registered Office: 12 Throgmorton Avenue

    London

    EC2N 2DL

    Registrar Telephone: +44 (0)370 707 1476

    Place of Registration: England

    Registered Number: 5612963

  • Year End: 30 November

    Results Announced: July (half yearly), January/February (final)

    AGM: March

    Dividends Paid: April/July/October and January (quarterly)

  • BlackRock is aware of a company, "BlackRock Commodities", which is fraudulently claiming to be affiliated to this Company and is quoting the BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Limited London office. "BlackRock Commodities" is not a regulated firm and is not authorised to perform the duties that they currently promote. Please read our latest shareholder communication for further details and an example of the fraudulent communication from "BlackRock Commodities".

Latest company announcements

Capital at risk. The value of investments and the income from them can fall as well as rise and are not guaranteed. Investors may not get back the amount originally invested.

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The Board's approach to ESG

Capital at risk.The value of investments and the income from them can fall as well as rise and are not guaranteed. Investors may not get back the amount originally invested.

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues can present both opportunities and risks to long-term investment performance. The Company’s investment universe comprises sectors that are undergoing significant structural change and are likely to be highly impacted by increasing regulation as a result of climate change and other social and governance factors. Your Board is committed to ensuring that we have appointed a manager that integrates ESG considerations into its investment process and has the skill and vision to navigate the structural transition that the Company’s investment universe is undergoing.

The Board believes multi-year engagement with management is, in most cases, the most constructive way of building our understanding of a company’s approach to addressing material business risks and opportunities. Engagement can lead to stronger relationships with companies and more constructive outcomes for shareholders and businesses alike.

This is particularly true for the Company’s Manager given the extent of BlackRock’s shareholder engagement (BlackRock held 3,693 engagements with companies based in 55 markets for the year to 30 June 2022, and voted on more than 173,000 management and shareholder proposals at 18,100 meetings). The Board believes that BlackRock is well-placed as Manager to fulfil these requirements due to the integration of ESG into its investment processes, its constructive approach in its investment stewardship activities and its position in the industry as one of the largest suppliers of sustainable investment products in the global market.

Sustainable investing: BlackRock's approach

Sustainability is BlackRock’s standard for investing, based on the investment conviction that integrating sustainability can help investors build more resilient portfolios and achieve better long-term, risk-adjusted returns. BlackRock believes that climate change is a defining factor in companies’ long-term prospects and that it will have a significant and lasting impact on economic growth and prosperity. BlackRock believes that climate risk equates to investment risk and this will drive a profound reassessment of risk and asset values as investors seek to react to the impact of climate policy changes. This in turn is likely to drive a significant reallocation of capital away from traditional carbon intensive industries over the next decade.

ESG: integration into BlackRock’s investment management process

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investing is often conflated or used interchangeably with the term “sustainable investing.” BlackRock has identified sustainable investing as being the overall framework and ESG as a data toolkit for identifying and informing its solutions. BlackRock has defined ESG Integration as the practice of incorporating material ESG information and consideration of sustainability risks into investment decisions in order to enhance risk-adjusted returns. BlackRock recognises the relevance of material ESG information across all asset classes and styles of portfolio management. ESG information and sustainability risks are included as a consideration in investment research, portfolio construction, portfolio review, and investment stewardship processes. The Investment Manager considers ESG insights and data, including sustainability risks, within the total set of information in its research process and makes a determination as to the materiality of such information in its investment process. ESG insights are not the sole consideration when making investment decisions. and the extent to which ESG insights are considered during investment decision making will also be determined by the characteristics or objectives of the Company. The Investment Manager’s evaluation of ESG data may be subjective and could change over time in light of emerging sustainability risks or changing market conditions. This approach is consistent with the Investment Manager’s regulatory duty to manage the Company in accordance with its investment objectives and policy and in the best interests of the Company’s investors. The Investment Manager’s Risk and Quantitative Analysis group will review portfolios to ensure that sustainability risks are considered regularly alongside traditional financial risks, that investment decisions are taken in light of relevant sustainability risks and that decisions exposing portfolios to sustainability risks are deliberate, and the risks diversified and scaled according to the investment objectives of the Company.

BlackRock’s approach to ESG integration is to broaden the total amount of information the Investment Manager considers with the aim of improving investment analysis and understanding the likely impact of sustainability risks on the Company’s investments. The Investment Manager assesses a variety of economic and financial indicators, which may include ESG data and insights, to make investment decisions appropriate for the Company objectives. This can include relevant third-party insights or data, internal research or engagement commentary and input from BlackRock Investment Stewardship.

Sustainability risks are identified at various steps of the investment process, where relevant, from research, allocation, selection, portfolio construction decisions, or management engagement, and are considered relative to the Company’s risk and return objectives. Assessment of these risks is done relative to their materiality (i.e. likeliness of impacting returns of the investment) and in tandem with other risk assessments (e.g. liquidity, valuation, etc.).

ESG integration does not change the Company’s investment objective or constrain the Investment Manager’s investable universe, and does not mean that an ESG investment strategy or exclusionary screens has been or will be adopted by the Company. Similarly, ESG integration does not determine the extent to which the Company may be impacted by sustainability risks.

Investment Stewardship

BlackRock undertakes investment stewardship engagements and proxy voting with the goal of protecting and enhancing the long-term value of clients’ investments for relevant asset classes. In our experience, sustainable financial performance and value creation are enhanced by sound governance practices, including risk management oversight, board accountability, and compliance with regulations. We focus on board composition, effectiveness and accountability as a top priority. In our experience, high standards of corporate governance are the foundations of board leadership and oversight. We engage to better understand how boards assess their effectiveness and performance, as well as their position on director responsibilities and commitments, turnover and succession planning, crisis management and diversity. BlackRock takes a long-term perspective in its investment stewardship work informed by two key characteristics of our business: the majority of our investors are saving for long-term goals, so we presume they are long-term shareholders; and BlackRock offers strategies with varying investment horizons, which means BlackRock has long-term relationships with its investee companies. For further detail regarding BlackRock’s Investment Stewardship approach please refer to the website here.

Engagement with portfolio companies

The Board receives regular updates from the Investment Manager in respect of engagement activity undertaken in respect of portfolio companies. Over the year to 30 November 2022, 94 total company engagements were held with the management teams of 40 portfolio companies representing 66% of the portfolio by value at 30 November 2022. To put this into context, there were 61 companies in the BlackRock Energy and Resources Income Trust plc’s portfolio at 30 November 2022. In total 985 proposals were voted on at 67 shareholder meetings.

Fund manager commentary

31 January 2024

Please note that the commentary below includes historic information on sector performance, commodity price performance and the Company’s NAV performance.

The figures shown relate to past performance. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of current or future results.

Commenting on the markets, Tom Holl and Mark Hume, representing the Investment Manager noted:

The Company’s Net Asset Value (NAV) per share decreased by 6.0% during the month of January (in GBP terms).

Equity markets remained broadly flat, with the MSCI All Country World Index returning 0.6%. The January US payroll report showed robust job gains and wage growth, whilst core inflation fell back to 2%, indicating ongoing resilience in the US economy. Optimism was slightly tempered as we approached the end of the month, following the Fed’s less dovish tone at its January meeting. At a company level, Q4 earnings results were mixed, however mega-cap tech companies’ earnings expectations led market returns.

It was a difficult start to the year for the mining sector on the back of price declines for most mined commodities. Mined commodity prices softened as sentiment around China deteriorated amidst weakness in the country’s domestic property and equity markets. China’s manufacturing PMI remained below 50 but rose marginally month-on-month from 49.0 to 49.2. For reference, prices for iron ore (62% fe), zinc and nickel fell by 6.7%, 4.6% and 2.2% respectively. Iron ore was negatively impacted by China closing a number of steel mills at the end of December as part of its emissions reduction efforts which restricted steel production through January. Meanwhile, US dollar strength weighed on the precious metals, with prices for gold, silver and platinum falling by 0.8%, 4.7% and 8.2% respectively. Copper bucked the trend, its price rising by 0.4%, appearing to reflect growing recognition of the supply side issues in that market. Uranium prices also remained strong on robust demand, but the battery materials prices continued to decline on concerns around electric vehicle-related spend.

Within energy markets, global oil demand continued to remain positive with resilient refining margins. Saudi Arabia announced a reduction to their previous capacity expansion plans where the country is aiming to increase production capacity to 12mbpd, rather than to 13mpd over the coming years. Whilst not impacting on near-term supply, this follows the broader trend of capital discipline by the listed oil majors. Energy equities ended the month broadly flat. Natural gas prices were weaker in January with mild winter weather in Europe, whilst the US announced a pause in approvals for new Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) export projects. Against this backdrop. brent and WTI oil prices rose by 6.8% and 6.1%, ending the month at $83/bbl and $76/bbl respectively. The US Henry Hub natural gas price fell by 15.1% during the month to end at $2.1/mmbtu.

Within the energy transition theme, the International Energy Agency (IEA) released its Renewables 2023 report, which noted that 2023 was the 22nd year in a row where renewable capacity additions set a new record with over 500GW added. Manufacturing capacity under construction indicates that solar panel production capacity could reach 1100GW by the end of 2024. Elsewhere, S&P Global Commodity Insights forecast approximately $800 billion in renewable energy technology investments for 2024, which represents an increase of 10%-20% over 2023 spending levels. In addition to an expectation that the cost of clean technology, including solar panels, may fall by 10 to 20% in 2024, the report also highlighted that manufacturers were also focused on reducing the carbon intensity of their products and increasing transparency and traceability.

All data points in US dollar terms unless otherwise specified. Commodity price moves sourced from Thomson Reuters Datastream.

Unless otherwise stated all data is sourced from BlackRock as at 30 November 2023. All data points in US Dollar terms unless otherwise specified.

Risk: Reference to the names of each company mentioned in this communication is merely for explaining the investment strategy, and should not be construed as investment advice or investment recommendation of those companies.

Any opinions or forecasts represent an assessment of the market environment at a specific time and are not intended to be a forecast of future events or a guarantee of future results. This information should not be relied upon by the reader as research, investment advice or a recommendation.

Portfolio manager biographies

Capital at risk. The value of investments and the income from them can fall as well as rise and are not guaranteed. Investors may not get back the amount originally invested.

Tom Holl is co-manager of the BlackRock Energy and Resources Income Trust plc and is a member of BlackRock's Natural Resources team. Tom is responsible for the nutrition strategy, the gold and mining sectors and co-manages a number of the team's gold and mining portfolios as well as income strategies. He moved to his current role in 2008, but his service with the firm dates back to 2006. Previously, Tom was a member of the Global Equity team and the Real Estate team. Tom has a degree, with honours in land economy.

Mark Hume is co-manager of the BlackRock Energy and Resources Income Trust plc and is a member of the Natural Resources team within the Fundamental Equity division of BlackRock's Active Equity Group. He is responsible for covering the energy and new energy sectors.

Prior to joining BlackRock in 2017, Mark was an energy portfolio manager at Colonial First State Global Asset Management. He had previously worked at Bank of America Merrill Lunch, Credit Suisse, JP Morgan and Wood Mackenzie as a senior equities analyst covering large-cap energy stocks. He holds a MEng in Petroleum Engineering from Heriot-Watt University, and a BSc in Mathematics from the University of Edinburgh.

Tom Holl profile photo
Tom Holl
Portfolio Manager
Mark Hume profile photo
Mark Hume
Portfolio Manager

Board of directors

All of the Directors are non-executive and are independent of the Investment Manager.

* Denotes Member of the Audit and Management Engagement Committee.

Mr Adrian Brown (Chairman) (appointed 10 December 2019) is a senior advisor for Apex Group. He was formerly an Investment Analyst and Corporate Finance Manager at Morgan Grenfell & Co before joining Pearson plc as a Corporate Resources Executive. In 1992 he joined Boots plc, holding a range of senior roles before returning to work in the financial services sector in 2006 as a Senior Portfolio Manager in the Equity / Multi-Asset Group at AllianceBernstein LP and subsequently at JPMorgan Asset Management, where he was a Managing Director and Client Portfolio Manager in the Global / International Equity Group from 2011 until his retirement in 2018. Mr Brown is also a trustee of the Boots plc pension scheme.

Dr Carol Bell* (Senior Independent Director) (appointed 1 December 2023) is a Non-Executive Director of Tharisa plc and Bonheur ASA. Dr Bell was formerly a Managing Director of Chase Manhattan Bank's Global Oil & Gas Group, Head of European Equity Research at JP Morgan and an Equity Research Analyst in the oil and gas sector at Credit Suisse First Boston and UBS. She has also previously been a Non-Executive Director of Petroleum Geo-Services ASA, Transglobe Energy Corporation and Ophir Energy plc and a Director of Salamander Energy plc, Hardy Oil & Gas plc, Det norske oljeselskap ASA, Caracal Energy Inc. (now Glencore E&P (Canada) Inc.) and a Trustee of the National Museum Wales. Dr Bell is also currently an Independent Board Member of the Football Association of Wales.

Mrs Carole Ferguson* (appointed 22 December 2021) is CEO of Carbon Transition Analytics and a Non-Executive Director of Henderson Far East Income Limited. She is also on the advisory board of WHEB Asset Management, an impact investor focused on the opportunities created by the transition to a low carbon and sustainable global economy, and was also formerly a Managing Director of Industry Tracker, a climate research house. Mrs Ferguson has extensive experience in the financial services sector in research, finance and sustainability. She began her career in fund management with BZW Investment Management, moving to work in equity derivatives with Swiss Bank Corporation, JP Morgan Securities and later with Jardine Fleming (Hong Kong) and Robert Fleming (London). Subsequently she was a senior member of the UK fund management team at SG Asset Management before moving to work as a mining analyst at SP Angel for four years. In 2017 she became Head of Investor Research at CDP, the charity that runs the global disclosure system for investors, companies, and others to manage their environmental impact.

Mr Andrew Robson* (appointed 8 December 2020) is a qualified chartered accountant with over 15 years of corporate finance experience, gained at Robert Fleming & Co Limited and SG Hambros. He has considerable experience as a finance director and as chairman of audit committees, including for a number of investment companies, and has a business advisory practice. He is currently a Non-Executive Director of abrdn New India Investment Trust plc. He was also a Non-Executive Director of AVI Global Trust plc (formerly British Empire Trust plc) until 2017, Shires Income plc until July 2020, JPMorgan Smaller Companies Investment Trust plc until November 2020 and Baillie Gifford China Growth Trust plc until 16 June 2023. Mr Robson has a degree in History from Trinity College, Cambridge.

Mrs Anne Marie Cannon* (appointed 16 January 2024) has over 40 years experience in the energy industry and investment banking and is an experienced director holding executive and non-executive roles. She is currently Deputy Chair at Aker BP ASA and was formerly a Non-Executive Director of Harbour Energy plc, STV Group plc, Aker ASA and Aker Energy AS. In addition, she is a Senior Advisor in the Strategic Advisory business at PJT Partners. Mrs Cannon was previously a Senior Advisor at Morgan Stanley and a Director at Schroder Wagg and was an Executive Director on the boards of Hardy Oil & Gas plc and British Borneo plc. She has also held financial and commercial roles at Shell UK and Thomson North Sea. Mrs Cannon is a Fellow of the Energy Institute.

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Investment strategies targeting growth and income
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Over 29 years of proven experience running investment trusts (Dec 2021)
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Unparalleled research capabilities and experienced stock pickers
Contact
To get in touch contact us on:
Telephone: 020 7743 3000
Email: cosec@blackrock.com