Tender Offer - Strike Price

2 Aug 2010 16:51

Not for release, publication or distribution in or into the United States, Canada, Australia or Japan.

BLACKROCK ABSOLUTE RETURN STRATEGIES LTD

Reverse Auction Tender Offer - Strike Price

The Board of BlackRock Absolute Return Strategies Ltd (the "Company") announces that the Strike Price for each of the Company's share classes is as follows:

US Dollar denominated Shares - US$8.62Euro denominated Shares - €8.18; andSterling denominated Shares - £7.91.

The Strike Price for each class of Shares (calculated after deducting the costs and expenses of the Reverse Auction Tender offer) has been determined by taking the published net asset value per Share of the relevant class as at 30 June 2010 and applying the Strike Discount for that class of Shares as determined by the auction process.

Accordingly, 165,505 US Dollar denominated Shares, 164,178 Euro denominated Shares and 801,045 Sterling denominated Shares will be repurchased under the Reverse Auction Tender Offer and placed in treasury.

Settlement of the Reverse Auction Redemption Offer consideration is expected to be made on, or before 7 September 2010. A further announcement advising of the settlement date will be made in due course.

Defined terms in this announcement have the same meaning as in the Circular to shareholders dated 30 April 2010.

Enquiries:

Jonathan Ruck Keene / Barbara Powley (Company Secretary) - 020 7743 3000 BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Limited

Peter Hindmarsh - 020 7397 1983Cenkos Securities plc

Date: 2 August 2010