Smo Gold Regulatory News (BARS)

6 Feb 2012 17:18

BlackRock Absolute Return Strategies Limited (the "Company")

6 February 2012

Redemption of Shares

Further to the Company's announcement on 21 November and the powers granted to the Board at the Company's extraordinary general meeting in August, the Company today announces that approximately 73.5 per cent. of the Company's issued share capital will be redeemed at close of business on 10 February 2012 (the "Redemption Date") by way of a compulsory partial redemption of shares by reference to the unaudited monthly NAV of the Company as at December 2011 (the "First Redemption").

The First Redemption will be effected pro rata to holdings of shares on the register at the close of business on the Redemption Date (which is the record date for the purposes of the First Redemption), being 10 February 2012. The payments made to shareholders of each share class in respect of redeemed shares will be as follows:

* GBP70,929,969 to the Sterling share class (equivalent to £9.9465 per share); * USD12,939,932 to the Dollar share class (equivalent to $10.1927 per share); and * EUR12,151,515 to the Euro share class (equivalent to €9.9256 per share),

Fractions of Shares will not be redeemed and so the number of shares to be redeemed for each shareholder will be rounded down to the nearest whole number of shares. The amount to be applied to the partial redemption of shares comprises the monies from the realisation of the Company's investments to be received up to and including 2 February 2012 pursuant to the winding down of the Company, less any funds used or required to settle any liabilities (including the estimated ongoing day to day running costs of the Company and the costs and expenses of this partial redemption).

As at today's date, the Company has 9,702,237 Sterling shares, 1,727,243 Dollar shares and 1,665,646 Euro shares in issue of which none are held in treasury. All of the shares redeemed on the Redemption Date will be cancelled.

The shares of each of the Company's share classes will be disabled in CREST on the Redemption Date and the existing ISIN numbers JE00B2PXDB91 (Sterling), JE00B2PXNQ43 (Dollar) and JE00B2PXNC07 (Euro) will expire. The new ISIN numbers JE00B7GVN842 (Sterling), JE00B7GVP227 (Dollar) and JE00B7GVN396 (Euro) in respect of the remaining Shares which have not been redeemed will be enabled and available for transactions from and including 13 February 2012. Up to and including the Redemption Date, Shares will be traded under the Old ISINs and as such, a purchaser of such Shares would have a market claim for a proportion of the redemption proceeds. CREST will automatically transform any open transactions as at the Redemption Date into the New ISINs.

Currency Hedging

In the Company's announcement on 21 November, the Board advised that it anticipated that the Company's hedging programme would become inefficient as the Company's portfolio was realised. Accordingly, the Board advises that the Company's currency hedging programme has now been terminated.

Consequently, holders of Sterling and Euro class shares will be exposed to Sterling:US Dollar and the Euro:US dollar exchange rate fluctuations respectively.

Conversion between share classes

The Company's Euro and US Dollar share classes are expected to be merged into the Sterling class in March. A further announcement will be made about the Conversion in due course.

Ian WebsterBlackRock (Channel Islands) Limited, Secretary

Enquiries

Will Rogers - 020 7397 1920 Tommy O'Sullivan - 020 7397 1922Chris Lunn - 020 7397 1912Cenkos Securities plc