BLACKROCK TAXABLE MUNICIPAL BOND TRUST BlackRock Advisors, LLC (the “Advisor”) today announced that the Board of Trustees (the “Board”) of BlackRock Build America Bond Trust (NYSE:BBN, the “Trust”) has approved changes to certain non-fundamental investment policies and the name of the Trust.
The Trust will continue to pursue its primary investment objective of seeking high current income, with a secondary objective of capital appreciation. However, as a result of these investment policy changes, the Trust will no longer be required to invest a specific percentage of its managed assets in Build America Bonds (“BABs”).
The changes to the Trust’s current non-fundamental investment policies are as follows:
| Current Policy | Changed Policy | Effective Date | |||||||||||||
Build |
Under normal market |
Under normal market |
On or around | ||||||||||||
In connection with the investment policy change above, the Trust will be required to change its name. Upon the effective date, the Trust will change its name to “BlackRock Taxable Municipal Bond Trust”. The Trust will continue to trade on the NYSE under its current ticker symbol, “BBN”.
Given the uncertainty around the BABs program at the time of the Trust’s launch in 2010, the Trust’s initial public offering prospectus included a provision whereby if, for any 24-month period, there were no new issuances of BABs or other analogous taxable municipal securities, the Board would undertake an evaluation of potential actions with respect to the Trust (the “Contingent Review Provision”). Under the Contingent Review Provision, such potential action may include changes to the Trust’s non-fundamental investment policies to broaden its primary investment focus to include taxable municipal securities generally.
Given that there have been no new issuances of BABs, the investment policy changes described herein reflect the Board’s evaluation of the Trust pursuant to the Contingent Review Provision. The Trust believes that these investment policy changes are appropriate at this time to potentially diversify the Trust’s portfolio by broadening its investment universe and to keep the Trust’s portfolio flexible enough to take advantage of relative value opportunities in the taxable municipal market as a whole.
The Trust will continue to maintain its other investment policies, including its ability to invest up to 20% of its managed assets in securities other than taxable municipal securities. Such other securities include tax-exempt securities, U.S. Treasury securities and obligations of the U.S. Government, its agencies and instrumentalities and, effective on or about October 1, 2015, will include corporate bonds issued by issuers that have, in the Advisor’s view, typically been associated with or sold in the municipal market, such as bonds issued by private universities and hospitals, or bonds sold to finance military housing developments.
No other changes to the Trust’s other investment policies or the Trust’s portfolio management team are currently anticipated, nor is it currently anticipated that there will be substantial portfolio turnover in conjunction with these changes in the immediate future.
No action is required by shareholders of the Trust in connection with these investment policy changes.
About BlackRock
BlackRock is a leader in investment management, risk management and advisory services for institutional and retail clients worldwide. At March 31, 2015, BlackRock’s AUM was $4.774 trillion. BlackRock helps clients meet their goals and overcome challenges with a range of products that include 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 March 31, 2015, the firm had approximately 12,300 employees in more than 30 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 www.blackrock.com | Twitter: @blackrock_news | Blog: www.blackrockblog.com | LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/blackrock
Availability of Trust Updates
BlackRock will update performance and certain other data for the Trust on a monthly basis on its website in the “Closed-end Funds” section of www.blackrock.com as well as certain other material information as necessary from time to time. Investors and others are advised to check the website for updated performance information and the release of other material information about the Trust. This reference to BlackRock’s website is intended to allow investors public access to information regarding the Trust and does not, and is not intended to, incorporate BlackRock’s website in this release.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release, and other statements that BlackRock or the Trust may make, may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, with respect to the Trust’s or BlackRock’s future financial or business performance, strategies or expectations. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words or phrases such as “trend,” “potential,” “opportunity,” “pipeline,” “believe,” “comfortable,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “current,” “intention,” “estimate,” “position,” “assume,” “outlook,” “continue,” “remain,” “maintain,” “sustain,” “seek,” “achieve,” and similar expressions, or future or conditional verbs such as “will,” “would,” “should,” “could,” “may” or similar expressions.
BlackRock cautions that forward-looking statements are subject to numerous assumptions, risks and uncertainties, which change over time. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and BlackRock assumes no duty to and does not undertake to update forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in forward-looking statements and future results could differ materially from historical performance.
With respect to the Trust, the following factors, among others, could cause actual events to differ materially from forward-looking statements or historical performance: (1) changes and volatility in political, economic or industry conditions, the interest rate environment, foreign exchange rates or financial and capital markets, which could result in changes in demand for the Trust or in the Trust’s net asset value; (2) the relative and absolute investment performance of the Trust and its investments; (3) the impact of increased competition; (4) the unfavorable resolution of any legal proceedings; (5) the extent and timing of any distributions or share repurchases; (6) the impact, extent and timing of technological changes; (7) the impact of legislative and regulatory actions and reforms, including the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and regulatory, supervisory or enforcement actions of government agencies relating to the Trust or BlackRock, as applicable; (8) terrorist activities, international hostilities and natural disasters, which may adversely affect the general economy, domestic and local financial and capital markets, specific industries or BlackRock; (9) BlackRock’s ability to attract and retain highly talented professionals; (10) the impact of BlackRock electing to provide support to its products from time to time; and (11) the impact of problems at other financial institutions or the failure or negative performance of products at other financial institutions.
Annual and Semi-Annual Reports and other regulatory filings of the Trust with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) are accessible on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov and on BlackRock’s website at www.blackrock.com, and may discuss these or other factors that affect the Trust. The information contained on BlackRock’s website is not a part of this press release.
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