BlackRock Latin American reports a -9.6% return on net assets for the first six months of 2015 and a -11.5% return to ordinary shareholders. This represents underperformance of the fund’s benchmark, the MSCI EM Latin America Index which ended the period down by 7.0%. The interim dividend is being maintained at 15 cents per share (NB cents not pence – BlackRock Latin’s shares trade in Sterling but it prepares its accounts in US dollars).
The report attributes part of the performance to not holding Petrobras (where the Manager has concerns about the balance sheet and the impact of the ongoing corruption investigation). Other factors affecting the fund’s performance relative to its benchmark included overweight positions in Brazilian education stocks Kroton Educacional and Ser, and an overweight position in Grana y
Montero in Peru. Offsetting some of the negative contributions were being underweight Colombia and overweight Mexico. At the stock level, the largest individual contributors to performance included an underweight position in Vale and overweight positions in Walmart de Mexico and Fibria Celulose in Brazil.
BRLA : BlackRock Latin underperforms falling markets