Reflecting the Trusts' commitment to achieve their primary investment objective of returning their initial offering price to investors upon termination, the Boards of Directors of The BlackRock Strategic Term Trust Inc. (NYSE: BGT), The BlackRock Investment Quality Term Trust Inc. (NYSE: BQT), and The BlackRock Broad Investment Grade 2009 Term Trust Inc. (AMEX: BCT) voted to reduce each Trust's monthly dividend.
Each of the three Trusts remain on schedule to achieve their primary investment objective of returning the initial offering price to shareholders on or about their planned termination dates. Dividend adjustments are expected over the life of the Trusts as the continual reinvestment of cash flows into shorter maturity securities over time results in less income available to be paid out in the form of dividend payments.
The dividend adjustments are detailed below: BlackRock Strategic Term Trust Inc. NYSE Symbol: BGT CUSIP: 09247P 108 New Monthly Dividend: $0.03125 New Annualized Dividend: $0.375 New Yield: Yield on Current NAV: 3.90% Yield on Stock Price: 4.00% Declaration Date: March 1, 2001 Record Date: March 15, 2001 Ex-Dividend Date: March 13, 2001 Payable Date: March 30, 2001 BlackRock Investment Quality Term Trust Inc. NYSE Symbol: BQT CUSIP: 09247J 102 New Monthly Dividend: $0.0333 New Annualized Dividend: $0.40 New Yield: Yield on Current NAV: 4.32% Yield on Stock Price: 4.58% Declaration Date: March 1, 2001 Record Date: March 15, 2001 Ex-Dividend Date: March 13, 2001 Payable Date: March 30, 2001 BlackRock Broad Investment Grade 2009 Term Trust Inc. AMEX Symbol: BCT CUSIP: 09247Q 106 New Monthly Dividend: $0.0625 New Annualized Dividend: $0.75 New Yield: Yield on Current NAV: 5.22% Yield on Stock Price: 5.62% Declaration Date: March 1, 2001 Record Date: March 15, 2001 Ex-Dividend Date: March 13, 2001 Payable Date: March 30, 2001
BlackRock (NYSE: BLK) is one of the largest publicly traded investment management firms in the United States with $204 billion of assets under management as of December 31, 2000. BlackRock manages assets on behalf of more than 3,000 institutions and 160,000 individuals worldwide through a variety of equity, fixed income, liquidity and alternative investment separate accounts and mutual funds, including the Company's flagship fund families, BlackRock Funds and BlackRock Provident Institutional Funds. In addition, the Company provides risk management and technology services to a growing number of institutional investors under the BlackRock Solutions name. Clients are served from the Company's headquarters in New York City, as well as offices in Philadelphia, PA, Wilmington, DE, Edinburgh, Scotland and Tokyo, Japan. BlackRock is a member of The PNC Financial Services Group (NYSE: PNC), one of the largest diversified financial services organizations in the United States, and is majority-owned by PNC and by BlackRock employees. For more information on BlackRock, see http://www.blackrock.com.
The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc., headquartered in Pittsburgh, is one of the nation's largest diversified financial services organizations, providing regional banking, corporate banking, real estate finance, asset-based lending, private banking, asset management, and global fund services.
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act with respect to financial performance and other financial and business matters. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words or phrases such as "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "estimate," "position," "will," "should," "would," "could," "may" or similar expressions. BlackRock cautions that these forward-looking statements are subject to numerous assumptions, risks and uncertainties, all of which change over time, and BlackRock assumes no duty to update forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. In addition to factors previously disclosed by BlackRock, the factors underlying these forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the performance of financial markets, the investment performance of BlackRock's sponsored investment products, government regulations, including tax law changes, competitive conditions, future acquisitions, the impact, extent and timing of technological changes, and general economic conditions including changes in market interest rates.
SOURCE: BlackRock
Contact: Brendan Kyne of BlackRock, 800-227-7236
Website: http://www.blackrock.com/