BlackRock Latin American Inv. Trust - Improving fundamentals, undemanding valuations

BlackRock Latin American Investment Trust (BRLA) has two experienced managers, Sam Vecht and Ed Kuczma. They comment that Latin America is attractively valued both versus its history and compared with other regions. Within emerging markets, due to regulatory pressures there has been some rotation away from Asian technology companies whose shares have been favoured by investors over the last five to 10 years and have crowded out Latin American equities in emerging market indices. Vecht and Kuczma say that Latin America is benefiting from strong raw material prices and a robust economic recovery following the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines. Due to political risk, the managers have flattened the country risk within BRLA’s portfolio, and are focused on seeking high-quality, reasonably priced companies that have above-average earnings growth.