BlackRock Latin American Investment Trust plc

About this investment trust

Capital at risk. The value of investments and the income from them can fall as well as rise and are not guaranteed. Investors may not get back the amount originally invested.

The Company aims to secure long-term capital growth and an attractive total return primarily through investing in quoted securities in Latin America.

Why choose it?

Latin American countries hold a wealth of opportunities for long-term investors keen to participate in the region's growth and diversity. Our experienced team draws on its extensive network in the region to uncover the most compelling opportunities across a variety of countries and sectors.

Diversification and asset allocation may not fully protect you from market risk.

Why choose it?

Latin American countries hold a wealth of opportunities for long-term investors keen to participate in the region's growth and diversity. Our experienced team draws on its extensive network in the region to uncover the most compelling opportunities across a variety of countries and sectors.

Diversification and asset allocation may not fully protect you from market risk.

Suited to…

Investors with a long-term horizon who want to include Latin American shares in their portfolio and are able to tolerate periods of market volatility in pursuit of capital growth. This means shares prices may rise and fall more frequently.

What are the risks?

• Capital at risk. The value of investments and the income from them can fall as well as rise and are not guaranteed. Investors may not get back the amount originally invested.
• Overseas investment will be affected by movements in currency exchange rates.
• Emerging market investments are usually associated with higher investment risk than developed market investments. Therefore the value of these investments may be unpredictable and subject to greater variation.
• Investment strategies, such as borrowing, used by the Trust can result in even larger losses suffered when the value of the underlying investments fall.

Useful information

Capital at risk. The value of investments and the income from them can fall as well as rise and are not guaranteed. Investors may not get back the amount originally invested.

Fees & Charges

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ESG Integration

The fund noted above does not commit to sustainable criteria nor does it have a sustainable investment objective.

BlackRock considers many investment risks in our processes. In order to seek the best risk-adjusted returns for our clients, we manage material risks and opportunities that could impact portfolios, including financially material Environmental, Social and/or Governance (ESG) data or information, where available. See our Firm Wide ESG Integration Statement for more information on this approach and fund documentation for how these material risks are considered within this product, where applicable.

Fund manager commentary

31 May 2025

Comments from the Portfolio Managers

Please note that the commentary below includes historic information in respect of the performance of portfolio investments, index performance data and the Company’s NAV and share performance.

The figures shown relate to past performance. Past Performance is not a reliable indicator of current or future results.

The Company’s NAV rose by +6.1% in May, significantly outperforming the benchmark, the MSCI Emerging Markets Latin America Index, which returned +0.6% on a net basis over the same period. All performance figures are in sterling terms with dividends reinvested. ¹

Emerging Markets had yet another positive month in May (+4.3%), but underperformed Developed Markets (+6.0%) after three months of outperformance. The gains were driven largely by the potential de-escalation of trade tensions. Latin American performance was more muted, returning 1.6% in US Dollar terms, where Peru was the best performing market, up +7.6%.

At the portfolio level, security selection in Brazil and Mexico were the largest contributors to performance during the month. On the other hand, an overweight exposure to an IT services name in Argentina detracted from performance.

From a security lens, an overweight position to a collection of Brazilian consumer names did well, with Azzas 2154, Lojas Renner and Alpargatas all contributing to performance after delivering strong Q1 earnings. XP, the Brazilian investment management platform, also did well on the back of decent results. An overweight position in Brazilian Health Care names, Hapvida and Rede D'or, also aided performance during the month. Hapvida reported a decline in net new judicial deposits, which was seen as a positive for the sector overall.

On the flipside, the biggest detractor over the month was our overweight position in IT services company, Globant. The stock pulled back on a poor set of earnings and weaker than expected guidance. Not owning Peruvian bank Credicorp was another relative detractor.

Whilst portfolio positioning remained largely unchanged in May, we did take advantage of the strong performance in Brazil year-to-date to take some profits on domestic names like Azzas 2154 and Rede D'or. We also sold out of Brazilian electric utility company, Energisa and added to Brazilian car rental company, Localiza, as we see greater upside for the latter. 

Mexico remains the largest portfolio overweight as at the end of May, while Chile is the largest underweight.

Outlook

Latin American equities have re-bounded sharply in 2025, and have outperformed both broader MSCI Emerging Markets and MSCI World indices proving to be an unlikely defensive candidate amid an increasingly volatile world. Within Latin America, inflation has surprised to the downside in some countries, interest rate expectations are falling, and earnings across several sectors are beating forecasts. Despite this, valuations remain attractive.

We see interesting bottom-up opportunities particularly in Mexico and Brazil. In Mexico, we do not see a major change in the secular trend of nearshoring of supply chains, as Mexico will remain a much cheaper location to manufacture than the United States. President Sheinbaum's pragmatic approach to trade negotiations underscores this view.

Whilst we have recently taken some profits on our domestic Brazil exposure, we remain positive on the country on a 12-18 month view and believe there is still room for significant upside. We favour companies with lower leverage and stronger earnings outlook. Given cheap valuations, we also see the potential for share buybacks supporting the market in 2025.

¹Source: BlackRock as at 31 May 2025

Source: Unless otherwise stated all data is sourced from BlackRock as at 31 May 2025.

Any opinions or forecasts represent an assessment of the market environment at a specific time and are not intended to be a forecast of future events or a guarantee of future results.

This information should not be relied upon by the reader as research, investment advice or a recommendation.

Risk: Reference to the names of each company mentioned in this communication is merely for explaining the investment strategy, and should not be construed as investment advice or investment recommendation of those companies.

Portfolio manager biographies

Capital at risk. The value of investments and the income from them can fall as well as rise and are not guaranteed. Investors may not get back the amount originally invested.

Sam Vecht is lead manager of the BlackRock Latin American Investment Trust plc. He is Head of the Emerging Europe, Frontiers and LatAm team within the Fundamental Active Equity division of BlackRock's Active Equities Group and is responsible for managing long-only and long/short portfolios in both Emerging and Frontier markets. He is also co-manager of the BlackRock Frontiers Investment Trust plc. Sam joined BlackRock in 2000 in the Global Emerging Markets Team. He has a degree in International Relations and History.

Gordon Fraser, CFA, Managing Director, is co-Head of the EM & Frontiers team as a part of BlackRock's Fundamental Equity Global Emerging Markets Platform. Mr. Fraser is a named portfolio manager on the Emerging Frontiers Hedge Fund and is also the co-portfolio manager on the long-biased Emerging Markets Equity Strategies and long-only Latin America strategies. Mr. Fraser's research coverage is across Asian markets, and he is the platform lead for macroeconomic analysis. He joined BlackRock as an Analyst in 2006.

Mr. Fraser earned a BA (1st class) and an MPhil (distinction) in Economics from Cambridge University in 2006. He is also a CFA Charterholder.

Board of directors

Carolan Dobson (Chairman) was appointed as a Director on 1 January 2016 and as Chairman on 2 March 2017. She is the former Head of UK Equities at Abbey Asset Managers and former Head of Investment Trusts at Murray Johnstone and therefore brings a wealth of industry experience to the Board. She is currently Non-Executive Chairman of Brunner Investment Trust plc and Baillie Gifford UK Growth Fund plc.

Craig Cleland was appointed as a Director on 1 January 2019 and Chairman of the Audit Committee from 31 March 2019. He is Head of Corporate Development/Investment Trusts at CQS (UK) LLP, a multi-asset asset management firm in London with a focus on credit markets, where his responsibilities include advising and developing the closed-end fund business. He is also a Director of Invesco Perpetual Select Trust plc and the CC Japan Income & Growth Trust plc and was formerly a Director of Martin Currie Asia Unconstrained Trust plc. He was previously at JPMorgan Asset Management (UK) Limited, latterly as Managing Director, and led their technical groups in the investment trust business. Prior to that, he was a Director and Senior Company Secretary at Fleming Investment Trust Management, transferring to JPMorgan Asset Management after Chase Manhattan Bank acquired Robert Fleming Holdings Limited.

Laurie Meister was appointed as a Director on 1 February 2020. Ms Meister has 32 years of financial markets experience, both in New York and in London, with 28 years dedicated to having led and developed Latin American equity and capital markets businesses and other emerging markets. Her most recent position was as the Director of Latin American equity sales for European institutional clients for Deutsche Bank from 2008 to 2018. Prior to this she worked for J.P. Morgan Chase as a Director with responsibility for rebuilding the Cemea (Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa) equity business and then became the Senior European Equity Director for their Latin American equity business. Her initial experiences in the Latin American equity arena included the European start up in the early 1990s of the Merrill Lynch Latin American research sales operation. She then moved as a Managing Director to Robert Flemings in 1995 where she co-led the start-up of their Latin American trading sales and research operations across the region. Ms Meister has a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. in Finance from the New York University Stern School.

Nigel Webber was appointed as a Director on 1 April 2017. Mr Webber’s broad investment experience has seen him lead the design of investment solutions for affluent and high-net-worth individuals across global markets and multiple asset classes. Most recently, he was Global Chief Investment Officer for HSBC Private Banking where he held global responsibility for all investment activity for Group Private Banking. During his time at HSBC, Mr Webber was also Chairman of the Global Investment Committee for Group Private Bank and Chairman for HSBC Alternative Investments Limited. Prior to this, he held a number of blue-chip executive positions around the world for investment and asset management businesses. He is also a qualified accountant.