BlackRock Emerging Europe Plc - Portfolio Update

PR Newswire
London, March 22

BLACKROCK EMERGING EUROPE PLC (LEI - 549300OGTQA24Y3KMI14)

All information is at 28 February 2018 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	-0.8	10.2			25.2				76.9	45.0			168.2
Net asset value	0.2	11.3			18.2				68.3	30.5			150.6
MSCI EM Europe	0.1	10.3			15.9				46.1	3.1			88.1
10/40(NR)
US Dollars:
Share price	-3.9	12.1			38.6				57.6	31.7			149.4
Net asset value	-2.9	13.2			30.8				50.0	18.5			133.0
MSCI EM Europe	-3.0	12.3			28.4				30.2	-6.4			74.9
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:								541.88c
Net asset value* - cum income:								557.56c
Sterling:
Net asset value - capital only:								393.29p
Net asset value* - cum income:								404.68p
Share price:								383.50p
Total assets^:								£145.3m
Discount (share price to cum income NAV):								5.2%
Net gearing at month end:								2.5%
Net yield^^^^:								1.5%
Gearing range as a % of Net assets:								0-20%
Issued Capital - Ordinary Shares^^								35,916,028
Ongoing charges^^^								1.2%
* Includes year to date net revenue equal to 11.39 pence per share.
^ Total assets include current year revenue.
^^ Excluding 5,000,000 shares held in treasury.
^^^ Calculated as at 31 January 2017, in accordance with AIC guidelines.
^^^^ Yield calculations are based on dividends announced in the last 12 months as at the date of release of this announcement, and comprise of the final dividend of 7.50 cents per share, (announced on 28 March 2017, ex-dividend on 18 May 2017)
Sector Analysis			Gross assets (%)				Country Analysis					Gross assets (%)
Financials			38.7				Russia					55.1
Energy			26.0				Poland					15.5
Telecommunication Services			11.5				Turkey					13.4
Consumer Staples			9.8				Greece					6.4
Health Care			5.5				Hungary					3.6
Materials			4.0				Ukraine					3.4
Information Technology			3.1				Pan-Emerging Europe					3.0
Consumer Discretionary			1.8				Net current liabilities					(0.4)
Net current liabilities			(0.4)									-----
			-----									100.0
			100.0									=====
			=====
Short position			(1.4)									(1.4)
Fifteen Largest Investments
(in % order of Gross Assets as at 28.02.18)
Company				Region of Risk							Gross assets
											(%)
Sberbank				Russia							9.8
Lukoil				Russia							9.3
Gazprom				Russia							8.8
PKO Bank Polski				Poland							5.3
Lenta				Russia							4.3
Rosneft Oil Company				Russia							4.0
Novatek				Russia							3.9
Turkcell				Turkey							3.9
PZU				Poland							3.7
Bank Pekao				Poland							3.6
Gedeon Richter				Hungary							3.6
Alpha Bank				Greece							3.3
Mobile Telesystems				Russia							3.2
National Bank of Greece				Greece							3.1
Erste Group Bank				Pan-Emerging Europe							3.0
Commenting on the markets, Sam Vecht and Christopher Colunga, representing the Investment Manager noted;
Market Commentary
The MSCI Emerging Europe 10/40 Index declined by 3.0% in February meaning the index relatively outperformed developing markets and other emerging markets countries, thanks mostly to a positive performance from index heavyweight Russia.* For reference, the MSCI Emerging Markets Index fell by 4.6%* and the MSCI World was down by 4.3%* over the same period. February was marked by a sharp correction in global equities giving back some of the strong January gains, led by developed markets.
Russia was the region's top performer, rising by +0.8% in February as inflation continued to fall triggering another interest rate cut of 25bps by the Bank of Russia.** Stronger oil prices, driven by a combination of increased demand amid cold winter conditions and tight supply, further supported the market. Central Europe (Poland -9.9%, Hungary -7.7% and Czech Republic -4.6%) and Greece (-8.2%) were weak reacting to the broader market sell off and giving up the gains from the previous month.* Turkey (-2.0%) outperformed the region in February following a decent 2017 year-end earnings season.
Focus on: MAIL.RU
Mail.Ru Group is an Internet company in Russia. It operates two most popular social networks in Russia: VKontakte (VK) with 97m users and Odnoklassniki (OK) with 71m. Its websites have the largest audience with over 90% of monthly Internet users and capture the most screen time in Russia. In addition, Mail.Ru owns the largest online games business in Russia, 2nd largest classifieds portal and multiple other internet properties.
2017 was a strong year for Mail.Ru, helped by a continued recovery in the Russian digital advertising market, turnaround in the games business via a successful acquisition, and the launch and development of several new verticals. VKontakte, the key social media unit, continued to gain users and improve monetisation, delivering more than 50% top line growth. Games business had an exceptionally strong year due to a VAT change (which was an effective price increase) and strong growth in Pixonic, the recently acquired mobile games studio. Mail.Ru also leveraged its audience reach to drive traffic to developing adjacent businesses such as food delivery (Delivery Club, the no.1 player in this nascent market) and classifieds (Youla, a general classifieds website launched less than 2 years ago). We have held the position in the stock for over a year now and it has been a strong contributor to portfolio returns. We continue to see the prospects in social network monetisation and synergies in the adjacent businesses such as Delivery Club (food delivery), Youla (local marketplace) and Pandao (cross border online retail).
*Source: BlackRock, MSCI, data as at end February 2018.
**Source: Bloomberg, data as at end February 2018.
22 March 2018 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.