BlackRock North American Income Trust Plc - Portfolio Update

BLACKROCK NORTH AMERICAN INCOME TRUST plc (LEI: 549300WWOCXSC241W468)
All information is at 31 October 2017 and unaudited.

Performance at month end with net income reinvested

	One Month	Three Months	Six Months	One Year	Three Years	Since Launch*
Net asset value	2.4%	2.8%	4.7%	11.5%	56.9%	105.4%
Share price	3.5%	3.4%	3.2%	6.3%	59.1%	89.8%
Russell 1000 Value Index	1.8%	1.8%	2.7%	8.3%	51.7%	126.0%

Source: BlackRock

*Launched on 24 October 2012.
 

At month end
Net asset value – capital only:	170.05p
Net asset value – cum income:	171.75p
Share price:	160.50p
Discount to cum income NAV:	6.6%
Net yield*:	3.1%
Total assets including current year revenue:	£118.3m
Gearing:	Nil
Options overwrite:	15.8%
Ordinary shares in issue**:	68,874,044
Ongoing charges***:	1.0%

* Based on dividends of 1.20p per share declared on 21 February 2017 and 1.25p per share declared on 3 May 2017, 8 August 2017 and 2 November 2017.

** Excluding 31,487,261 ordinary shares held in treasury.

*** 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 2016.

Benchmark
Sector Analysis	Total Assets (%)
Financials	27.2
Health Care	17.2
Energy	10.9
Information Technology	10.2
Industrials	9.9
Consumer Staples	5.8
Utilities	5.5
Materials	3.6
Consumer Discretionary	3.5
Telecommunication Services	2.3
Net current assets	3.9
	-----
	100.0
	=====

   

Country Analysis	Total Assets (%)
USA	78.7
Netherlands	4.3
United Kingdom	4.1
Canada	3.0
France	2.2
Ireland	2.1
Denmark	0.8
South Korea	0.5
China	0.4
Net current assets	3.9
	-----
	100.0
	=====

   

Ten Largest Investments
Company	Country of Risk	Total Assets (%)
JPMorgan Chase	USA	4.0
Bank of America	USA	3.9
Citigroup	USA	3.7
Pfizer	USA	3.7
Oracle	USA	3.1
Wells Fargo	USA	2.9
Anthem	USA	2.5
DowDuPont	USA	2.3
Microsoft	USA	2.1
Suncor Energy	Canada	1.9

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

For the one month period ended 31 October 2017 the Company’s NAV increased by 2.4% while the share price increased by 3.5% (all in sterling). The Company’s benchmark, the Russell 1000 Value Index, returned 1.8% for the period. 

The largest contributor to relative performance during the month was stock selection in the telecommunications sector. Notably, our decision not to own benchmark holding AT&T Inc. proved to be beneficial. In consumer staples, stock selection and an underweight to the food & staples retailing industry and our underweight to the household products industry also boosted relative returns. A combination of stock selection and allocation decisions in the information technology sector and stock selection in health care and financials also contributed to relative performance during the month.

The largest detractor from relative performance was the portfolio’s cash position. Stock selection in utilities also proved to be costly, most notably due to our overweight to PG&E Corporation within the electric utilities industry. Lastly, in consumer discretionary, stock selection in the media industry and our overweight position in the leisure products industry dampened relative performance.

Transactions/Options

Transactions: Notable portfolio transactions during the month included initiating new positions in Novo Nordisk, The Charles Schwab Corporation and Pioneer Natural Resources Company. Notable sales during the month included the elimination of our position in The Coca-Cola Company and trimming our positions in General Electric Company and Occidental Petroleum Corporation.

Options:  As of 31 October 2017 the Company’s options exposure was 15.8% and the delta of the options was 87.8. 

Positioning

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

Source: BlackRock.

14 November 2017

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.

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