BlackRock Energy and Resources Income Trust plc (LON:BERI) has announced its latest portfolio update.
All information is at 28 February 2021 and unaudited.
For more information on BlackRock Energy and Resources Income Trust and how to access the opportunities presented by the energy and resources markets, please visit www.blackrock.com/uk/beri
Performance at month end with net income reinvested
| One | Three | Six | One | Three | Five | |
| Month | Months | Months | Year | Years | Years | |
| Net asset value | 6.9% | 14.7% | 31.4% | 46.9% | 38.4% | 116.2% |
| Share price | 19.4% | 30.9% | 53.7% | 76.4% | 41.6% | 115.5% |
Sources: Datastream, BlackRock
| At month end | ||
| Net asset value – capital only: | 90.98p | |
| Net asset value cum income*: | 91.61p | |
| Share price: | 92.30p | |
| Premium to NAV (cum income): | 0.8% | |
| Net yield: | 4.3% | |
| Gearing – cum income: | 6.2% | |
| Total assets: | £109.8m | |
| Ordinary shares in issue: | 113,470,349 | |
| Gearing range (as a % of net assets): | 0-20% | |
| Ongoing charges**: | 1.3% |
* Includes net revenue of 0.63p.
** Calculated as a percentage of average net assets and using expenses, excluding any interest costs and excluding taxation for the year ended 30 November 2020.
| Sector Overview | |
| Mining | 46.9% |
| Energy Transition | 23.4% |
| Energy | 30.3% |
| Net Current Liabilities | -0.6% |
| —– | |
| 100.0% | |
| ===== |
| Sector Analysis | % Total Assets^ | Country Analysis | % Total Assets^ | |
| Mining: | ||||
| Diversified | 24.4 | Global | 58.4 | |
| Copper | 7.6 | USA | 15.3 | |
| Industrial Minerals | 5.0 | Latin America | 8.9 | |
| Gold | 3.6 | Canada | 6.6 | |
| Iron | 2.0 | Australia | 3.7 | |
| Diamonds | 1.5 | South Africa | 2.3 | |
| Platinum | 1.2 | Germany | 1.9 | |
| Nickel | 1.0 | Norway | 1.2 | |
| Steel | 0.6 | France | 0.9 | |
| Subtotal mining: | 46.9 | Ireland | 0.6 | |
| United Kingdom | 0.6 | |||
| Energy: | Africa | 0.2 | ||
| Integrated | 15.6 | Other Net Liabilities^ | -0.6 | |
| E&P | 9.9 | |||
| Refining & Marketing | 3.2 | |||
| Distribution | 1.1 | —– | ||
| Oil Services | 0.5 | 100.00 | ||
| Subtotal Energy: | 30.3 | ===== | ||
| Energy Transition: | ||||
| Electrification | 9.7 | |||
| Energy Efficiency | 7.5 | |||
| Renewables | 4.3 | |||
| Transport | 1.1 | |||
| Storage | 0.8 | |||
| Subtotal Energy Transition: | 23.4 | |||
| Net Current Liabilities^ | -0.6 | |||
| —- | ||||
| 100.0 | ||||
| ===== |
^ Total Assets for the purposes of these calculations exclude bank overdrafts, and the net current liabilities figure shown in the tables above therefore exclude bank overdrafts equivalent to 5.6% of the Company’s net asset value.
Ten Largest Investments
| Company | Region of Risk | % Total Assets |
| Vale | Latin America | |
| Equity | 6.5 | |
| Bond | 0.2 | |
| Rio Tinto | Global | 6.4 |
| BHP | Global | 4.7 |
| Chevron | Global | 3.9 |
| Exxon Mobil | Global | 3.8 |
| Anglo American | Global | 3.8 |
| Freeport-McMoran | United States | 3.4 |
| Total | Global | 2.9 |
| Enel | Global | 2.8 |
| Glencore | Global | 2.6 |
Commenting on the markets, Tom Holl and Mark Hume, representing the Investment Manager noted:
The Company’s NAV increased by 6.9% during the month of February (in Sterling terms with dividends reinvested).
The falling COVID-19 infection rates and the rapid vaccination rollout continued to drive markets higher in February. However, virus mutations remained a background risk. From an economic standpoint, fiscal support has somewhat boosted demand for goods, whilst core government bond yields have risen on the back of perceived future growth and inflation expectations. Against this backdrop, equity markets posted positive returns, with the MSCI ACWI Index returning +2.2% in February.
Within the traditional energy sector, oil demand continued to upside surprise throughout February, which has tightened physical oil markets faster than expected. Elsewhere, freeze-offs in the US due to abnormally cold weather conditions curtailed both oil and gas supply, but also took out significant demand centres across Texas and the Gulf Coast. Much of it is now back online but did serve to pull gas storage numbers down and maintain strong gas prices throughout the month. Against this backdrop, oil prices rose, with the Brent and WTI (West Texas Intermediate) increasing by 19.2% and 21.8%, ending the month at $66/bbl and $64/bbl respectively.
February was a strong month for the mining sector in absolute terms and relative to broader equity markets. Industrial metals performed particularly well, with copper and iron ore (62% fe.) prices up 16.2% and 10.0% respectively (for reference, this took the copper price to the highest level since August 2011). Industrial metal prices were supported by robust demand from China, as the country came out of its New Year holiday period, and by demand from Europe and the US exceeding expectations. On the precious metals side, gold underperformed the other mined commodities, falling 7.0% as rising interest rate expectations and redemptions from physically backed gold ETFs put pressure on its price. Turning to the companies, the mining sector entered its full year 2020 financial reporting season and, in general, earnings met or exceeded expectations and signs of cost inflation were limited. Meanwhile, we also saw a number of dividend increases and given the run up in commodity prices, 2021 looks set to be a record year for mining dividends.
The energy transition space saw positive momentum continue for renewable power. Within Germany, solar power generation now accounts for over 10% of electricity generation and strong growth has continued, with annual installations rising 27% to 4.9GW for 2020 taking the total installed base to 54GW. The UK’s offshore wind auctions saw a range of prices paid with successful bidders including utility group RWE and energy companies BP and Total. Within clean transportation, there was further evidence of the accelerating shift toward electric vehicles (EV) as Volvo announced that it plans to go all electric by 2030, whilst Jaguar announced that it had plans to become an electric-only brand from 2025 onwards.
All data points in US Dollar terms unless otherwise specified. Commodity price moves sourced from Thomson Reuters Datastream.
For more information on BlackRock Energy and Resources Income Trust and how to access the opportunities presented by the energy and resources markets, please visit www.blackrock.com/uk/beri
22 March 2021
