SAN FRANCISCO, CA — (Marketwire) — 10/20/11 — BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE: BLK) today announced that its iShares® Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) business, the world-s largest manager of ETFs, has launched the iShares Emerging Markets Local Currency Bond Fund (NYSE Arca: LEMB) on the NYSE Arca. The new fund provides investors with diversified access to the broad investable universe of local emerging market debt, offering 100% local exposure to bonds denominated in issuers- local currencies.
“Historically, emerging market debt has been a difficult asset class for investors to access directly because of limitations in bond availability, high minimum trade sizes, and foreign investor restrictions,” said Matt Tucker, Head of iShares Fixed Income Strategy at BlackRock. “LEMB enables investors to access a broad universe of local sovereign bonds in a flexible format.”
Over the last several years, emerging markets have matured and have come to rely increasingly on local currency bonds to finance their deficits. Local currency debt represents approximately 78% of the $1.9 trillion dollars available in emerging market debt today.(1) The new iShares fund offers broad access to the emerging market debt universe with exchange traded liquidity.
Investors may consider local emerging market debt to complement emerging market equity exposure, diversify away from US dollar exposure, or broaden international fixed income portfolios. The iShares JPMorgan USD Emerging Markets Bond Fund (NYSE Arca: EMB), which was launched in December 2007, currently has $3.1 billion in assets under management and trades on average $44.7 million per day(2). LEMB could serve as a complement to EMB to allow investors exposure to both local currency and US dollar denominated emerging market debt.
The iShares Emerging Market Local Currency Bond Fund is benchmarked to the Barclays Capital Emerging Markets Broad Local Currency Bond Index, a modified market cap weighted index that covers 18 markets and includes the impact of local taxes on international investors. The top 3 country holdings as of 9/30/2011 are South Korea (20.9%), Brazil (13.6%), and Mexico (7.1%).
BlackRock is a leader in investment management, risk management and advisory services for institutional and retail clients worldwide. At September 30, 2011, BlackRock-s AUM was $3.345 trillion. BlackRock offers products that span the risk spectrum to meet clients- needs, including active, enhanced and index strategies across markets and asset classes. Products are offered in a variety of structures including separate accounts, mutual funds, iShares® (exchange-traded funds), and other pooled investment vehicles. BlackRock also offers risk management, advisory and enterprise investment system services to a broad base of institutional investors through BlackRock Solutions®. Headquartered in New York City, as of June 30, 2011, the firm has approximately 9,700 employees in 26 countries and a major presence in key global markets, including North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Middle East and Africa. For additional information, please visit the Company-s website at .
iShares is the global product leader in exchange traded funds with over 460 funds globally across equities, fixed income and commodities, which trade on 19 exchanges worldwide. The iShares Funds are bought and sold like common stocks on securities exchanges. The iShares Funds are attractive to many individual and institutional investors and financial intermediaries because of their relative low cost, tax efficiency and trading flexibility. Investors can purchase and sell shares through any brokerage firm, financial advisor, or online broker, and hold the funds in any type of brokerage account. The iShares customer base consists of the institutional segment of pension plans and fund managers, as well as the retail segment of financial advisors and high net worth individuals.
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. Diversification may not protect against market risk. Index constituents are subject to change.
Bonds and bond funds will decrease in value as interest rates rise. In addition to the normal risks associated with investing, international investments may involve risk of capital loss from unfavorable fluctuation in currency values, from differences in generally accepted accounting principles or from economic or political instability in other nations. Emerging markets involve heightened risks related to the same factors as well as increased volatility and lower trading volume. Narrowly focused investments typically exhibit higher volatility and are subject to greater geographic or asset class risk. The Fund is subject to credit risk, which refers to the possibility that the debt issuers will not be able to make principal and interest payments.
This material represents an assessment of the market environment at a specific time and is 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 or investment advice regarding the funds or any security in particular.
Transactions in shares of the iShares Funds will result in brokerage commissions and will generate tax consequences. iShares Funds are obliged to distribute portfolio gains to shareholders. Shares of the iShares Funds may be sold throughout the day on the exchange through any brokerage account. However, shares may only be redeemed directly from a Fund by Authorized Participants, in very large creation/redemption units. There can be no assurance that an active trading market for shares of an ETF will develop or be maintained.
The iShares Funds (“Funds”) are distributed by SEI Investments Distribution Co. (“SEI”). BlackRock Fund Advisors (“BFA”) serves as the investment advisor to the Funds. BlackRock Fund Distribution Company (“BFDC”) assists in the marketing of the Funds. BFA and BFDC are affiliates of BlackRock, Inc., none of which is affiliated with SEI.
The iShares Funds are not sponsored, endorsed, issued, sold or promoted by JPMorgan Chase & Co., nor are they sponsored, endorsed or issued by Barclays Capital. These companies do not make any representation regarding the advisability of investing in the Funds. Neither SEI, nor BlackRock Institutional Trust Company, N.A., nor any of their affiliates, are affiliated with the companies listed above.
(1) Source: Barclays Capital, as of 6/30/11.
(2) Source: BlackRock and Bloomberg as of 10/17/2011. Average daily volume is a 30-day average on the NYSE as of 10/17/2011.