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(Alliance News) - BlackRock Latin American Investment Trust PLC on Tuesday said it outperformed its benchmark in 2019 with momentum seen in Brazil, Mexico and Colombia.
The investment trust said for the year its net asset value total return was 18.2%, compared to the MSCI Emerging Markets Latin America Index, which returned 17.5%.
Net asset value per share as at December 31 was 732.16 US cents, up 13% from 650.13 cents the same date the year before.
BlackRock Latin American's share price at the end of 2019 was 643.17 cents, reflecting a 12% discount to net asset value, compared to 14% the prior year.
Shares in the investment trust closed 4.4% higher at 282.00 pence on Tuesday in London.
BlackRock Latin American said its performance was helped by its underweight positioning to Chile, which was pressured by social unrest. There was a strong performance from holdings in Brazil, with positive central bank actions and better than expected GDP growth.
There was also Colombia, which is the region's top performing country for 2019, due to healthy domestic demand, anchored inflation and oil price strength.
BlackRock Latin American declared a dividend of 34.89 pence per share for 2019, up from 23.55p the year before
"Before the outbreak of Covid-19, our portfolio managers were positive about the prospects for Latin America; the largest economy Brazil was making progress in fiscal and administrative reform, in Mexico the eventual approval of the USMCA trade agreement in North America should
improve business sentiment, in Colombia economic stability was increasing and in Argentina, despite the significant negative market sentiment, the Manager believes that there are interesting investment opportunities," said Chair Carolan Dobson.
"However, it is too early to really understand the economic implications of the Covid-19 pandemic on the global or Latin American economy. We do know that there is currently a sharp slowdown in economic activity in the countries that were first affected by the virus and already there has been a considerable amount of disruption to global supply chains," Dobson added.
By Dayo Laniyan; dayolaniyan@alliancenews.com
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