Over the six months to the end of March 2015 BlackRock Income Strategies generated a 0.5% return on net assets and on its share price. It declared dividends totalling 3.17p for the period – up 5.1% on the equivalent period last year but earned 15% less income so these dividends were not covered by earnings.
These are the first results reported since the fund adopted its new investment objective of generating a 4% return over the UK consumer prices index at the end of February so the figures only cover one month of the new approach and fives months of the old investment strategy. The figures are broken down in the statement and show that under F&C the portfolio return was 2.6% or 5% behind the old benchmark over the first five months and under BlackRock the return was -2.1% as they transitioned the portfolio to the new strategy.
The new portfolio now looks like this
6.25% Bond 2031 -14.1%
UK Equity Income 43.3%
Legacy Equities 1.3%
Tactical Allocation Equities 15.5%
Listed Alternatives 2.6%
Fixed Income 13.5%
Net Current Assets 5.4%
Cash and Cash Equivalents 17.6%
Cash held to back Derivatives 14.9%
BIST : Slow start for BlackRock Income Strategies