BLACKROCK EMERGING EUROPE PLC - Portfolio Update

PR Newswire
London, December 20

BLACKROCK EMERGING EUROPE PLC

All information is at 30 November 2016 and unaudited.

Performance at month end with net income reinvested

		One		Three		One				Three		Five		*Since
		Month		Months		Year				Years		Years		30.04.09
	Sterling:
	Share price	-1.0%		10.8%		31.3%				0.5%		14.9%		91.0%
	Net asset value	-0.7%		9.5%		34.3%				3.6%		16.1%		91.5%
	MSCI EM Europe	-3.4%		6.5%		29.5%				-11.7%		-4.6%		48.1%
	10/40(NR)
	US Dollars:
	Share price	1.3%		5.7%		9.0%				-23.3%		-8.7%		61.2%
	Net asset value	1.6%		4.4%		11.5%				-21.0%		-7.7%		61.5%
	MSCI EM Europe	-1.1%		1.6%		7.5%				-32.7%		-24.2%		24.8%
	10/40(NR)
	Sources: BlackRock, Standard & Poor's Micropal
	*BlackRock took over the investment management of the Company with effect from 1 May 2009
	At month end
	US Dollar:
	Net asset value - capital only:								385.30c
	Net asset value** - cum income:								392.89c
	Sterling:
	Net asset value - capital only:								308.39p
	Net asset value** - cum income:								314.47p
	Share price:								278.13p
	Total assets^:								£113.1m
	Discount (share price to cum income NAV):								11.6%
	Net cash at month end:								3.8%
	Gearing range as a % of Net assets:								0-20%
	Issued Capital - Ordinary Shares^^								35,967,728
	Ongoing charges*								1.3%
	* Calculated as at 31 January 2016, in accordance with AIC guidelines.
	** Includes year to date net revenue equal to 6.08 pence per share.
	^ Total assets include current year revenue.
	^^ Excluding 5,400,000 shares held in treasury.
Sector			Gross assets (%)					Country					Gross assets
Analysis								Analysis					(%)
Financials			38.6					Russia					50.3
Energy			26.0					Turkey					17.7
Consumer Staples			6.5					Poland					8.5
Information Technology			5.5					Greece					7.1
Industrials			5.3					Ukraine					6.7
Basic Materials			5.2					Czech Republic					3.5
Utilities			3.9					Kazakhstan					2.4
Telecommunications			2.9					Romania					1.8
Consumer Discretionary			2.5					Net current assets					3.8
Health Care Net current assets			1.6 3.8
			-----										-----
			101.8										101.8
			=====										=====
Short positions			(0.0)										(0.0)
Fifteen Largest Investments
	(in % order of Gross Assets as at 30.11.16)
Company					Region of Risk						Gross assets
											(%)
Sberbank					Russia						10.7
Gazprom					Russia						8.8
Novatek					Russia						6.6
Lukoil					Russia						5.5
Globaltrans					Russia						5.3
PZU					Poland						4.2
Inter RAO					Russia						3.9
Moneta Money Bank					Czech Republic						3.5
Halk Bank					Turkey						3.4
PKO Bank Polski					Poland						3.3
Mail.Ru					Russia						3.1
Turkcell					Turkey						2.9
Garanti Bank					Turkey						2.8
TSKB					Turkey						2.7
MHP					Ukraine						2.7
Commenting on the markets, Sam Vecht and Christopher Colunga, representing the Investment Manager noted;
	Market Commentary
	The MSCI EM Europe 10/40 Index declined -1.1% in November in USD terms. The Company outperformed the index and was up +1.6% in USD terms. Country performance in the region was led by Greece (+9.5%) and Russia (+4.8%); whilst Turkey (-15.1%), Czech (-10.6%), Poland (-7.5%) and Hungary (-4.6%) lagged. Greece was the best performing country in the region in November amid improving GDP growth, continued progress towards the second bailout program review, and Moody's revised outlook on the country's banking system to 'stable'. Russia performed strongly following the US elections in anticipation of a Trump administration looking more favourably on Russia than its predecessor. Conversely, the strong USD and steepening of the US yield curve had a negative impact on most European currencies. Turkey, with its twin deficits, was the biggest laggard in November. However, Hungary, Poland and Czech were not immune and also saw their currencies weakening following Trump's victory. Focus on: Ferrexpo Ferrexpo is a Ukrainian iron-ore producer and a top three supplier of iron ore pellets to the steel industry globally. The company went through a cash crunch in 2015 when some of its funds got locked in a Ukrainian bank that went into administration. This coupled with the collapse in iron ore prices in late 2015 put the company's debt sustainability at risk. Since then it has significantly reduced the cost base, continued to improve its product mix and focused on servicing its debt load. As a result of these efforts Ferrexpo delivered solid first half 2016 financial results, paid-off one of its trade finance loans and demonstrated that it was able to meet the remaining debt obligations going forward. The higher iron ore price and improved investor perception of debt sustainability has resulted in excellent stock performance. We continue to believe that Ferrexpo will generate solid cash flows, and should be able to dramatically reduce its debt burden through 2017, allowing for further stock price gains. 20 December 2016
	ENDS
	Latest information is available by typing www.blackrock.co.uk/beep 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.