BlackRock Multi-Sector Income Trust (BIT)
Investment Objectives
The Trust's primary investment objective is to seek high current income, with a secondary objective of capital appreciation. There can be no assurance that the Trust's investment objectives will be achieved or that the Trust's investment program will be successful.
Strategies
Under normal market conditions, the Trust will invest at least 80% of its Managed Assets (as defined in the Trust's Prospectus) in loan and debt instruments and other investments with similar economic characteristics (collectively "fixed income securities"). In investing the Trust's assets, the Advisors expect to allocate capital across multiple sectors of the fixed income securities market by evaluating portfolio risk in light of the available investment opportunities and prevailing risks in the fixed income market, with the goal of delivering attractive risk-adjusted returns. In doing so, the Advisors seek to find the appropriate balance between risk mitigation and opportunism. The Advisors do not manage the Trust to a benchmark, which provides flexibility to allocate and rotate the Trust's assets across various sectors within the fixed income universe. This strategy seeks to provide exposure to those segments of the fixed income market that the Advisors anticipate will provide value while attempting to minimize exposure to those segments that the Advisors anticipate will not provide value. If the Advisors' perception of the value of a segment of the fixed income market or an individual security is incorrect, your investment in the Trust may lose value.
Fixed income securities in which the Trust may invest include: mortgage related securities; asset-backed securities; U.S. Government and agency securities; loans and loan participations, including senior secured floating rate and fixed rate loans or debt ("Senior Loans") and second lien or other subordinated or unsecured floating rate and fixed rate loans or debt ("Second Lien Loans"); bonds or other debt securities issued by U.S. or foreign (non-U.S.) corporations or other business entities; collateralized loan obligations; preferred securities; convertible securities, including synthetic convertible securities; sovereign debt; municipal securities; and structured instruments.
The Trust may invest in securities of any quality, rated or unrated, including those that are rated below investment grade quality (rated Ba/BB or below by Moody's Investor's Service, Inc., Standard & Poor's Corporation Ratings Group, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., or Fitch Ratings, Inc.) or securities that are unrated but judged to be of comparable quality by the Advisors. Such securities, sometimes referred to as "high yield" or "junk" bonds, are predominantly speculative with respect to the capacity to pay interest and repay principal in accordance with the terms of the security and generally involve greater price volatility than securities in higher rating categories. The Trust may hold securities of any duration or maturity and does not maintain set policies with respect to the average duration or maturity of the Trust's portfolio. The Trust may invest without limitation in securities of U.S. issuers and non-U.S. issuers located in countries throughout the world, including in developed and emerging markets. Foreign securities in which the Trust may invest may be U.S. dollar-denominated or non-U.S. dollar-denominated. The Trust may invest in securities of issuers of any market capitalization size, including small- and mid-cap companies, and of issuers that operate in any sector or industry.
Under normal market conditions, the Trust will not invest more than 10% of its Managed Assets in CLOs.
Under normal market conditions, the Trust will invest at least 25% of its total assets in mortgage related securities. The Trust's investment in mortgage related securities may consist entirely of privately issued securities, which are issued by commercial banks, savings and loan institutions, mortgage bankers, private mortgage insurance companies and other non-governmental issuers.
Under normal market conditions, the Trust may invest up to 20% of its Managed Assets in securities other than fixed income securities, including common stocks, warrants, depositary receipts and other equity securities.
There can be no assurance that the Trust's investment objectives will be achieved or that the Trust's investment program will be successful.