BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE: BLK) today announced that five municipal bond closed-end trusts have completed their common share initial public offerings, raising a combined total of approximately $1,106,250,000 (exclusive of the underwriters' over-allotments). The amount raised could be increased to $1,272,187,500 assuming full exercise of the underwriters' over-allotments, which may not occur. The five trusts are the:
-- BlackRock Municipal Income Trust -- BlackRock California Municipal Income Trust -- BlackRock Florida Municipal Income Trust -- BlackRock New Jersey Municipal Income Trust -- BlackRock New York Municipal Income Trust
BlackRock Advisors, Inc. is the investment advisor to the Trusts. The Trusts began trading on the New York Stock Exchange today. The Trusts expect to issue Preferred Shares, which, if completed at anticipated levels, would bring the total combined assets of the five Trusts to approximately $1.8 billion (exclusive of the underwriters' over-allotments).
Trust name (Ticker Symbol) Initial Initial Value of Underwriters'
Share Shares Issued Over-allotment
Price
BlackRock Municipal
Income Trust (BFK) $15 $566,250,000 $84,937,500
BlackRock California
Municipal Income Trust (BFZ) $15 $195,000,000 $29,250,000
BlackRock Florida
Municipal Income Trust (BBF) $15 $87,000,000 $13,050,000
BlackRock New Jersey
Municipal Income Trust (BNJ) $15 $96,000,000 $14,400,000
BlackRock New York
Municipal Income Trust (BNY) $15 $162,000,000 $24,300,000
The co-lead managers of the underwriting syndicate were Salomon Smith Barney Inc. and Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated. Each Trust's investment objective is to provide current income exempt from regular federal income taxes and, for each state specific Trust, exempt from that state's income taxes.
Like any investment, the price of a Trust's shares will fluctuate with market conditions and, at the time of sale, may be worth more or less than the original investment.
For more complete information, including risk considerations, charges and expenses, please contact your securities representative or BlackRock, 345 Park Ave., New York, NY 10154 for a prospectus. Investors should read the prospectus carefully before they invest.
About BlackRock. BlackRock is one of the largest publicly traded investment management firms in the United States with $213 billion of assets under management as of June 30, 2001. BlackRock manages assets on behalf of more than 3,300 institutions and 200,000 individuals worldwide through a variety of equity, fixed income, liquidity and alternative investment separate accounts and mutual funds, including BlackRock Funds and BlackRock Provident Institutional Funds. In addition, BlackRock provides risk management and investment system services to institutional investors under the BlackRock Solutions name. Clients are served from the Company's headquarters in New York City, as well as offices in Wilmington, DE, Edinburgh, Scotland, Tokyo, Japan and Hong Kong. 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.
Forward Looking Statements. This press release and other statements that BlackRock makes contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act with respect to BlackRock's future financial or business performance, conditions, strategies, expectations and goals. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words or phrases such as "expect," "assume," "anticipate," "objective," "believe," "remain," "potential," "intend," "strategy," "outlook," "trend," "plan" and variations of such words and similar expressions, or future or conditional verbs such as "will," "would," "should," "could," "may" or similar expressions. BlackRock cautions that these forward-looking statements are subject to numerous assumptions, risks and uncertainties, which change over time. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release, and BlackRock assumes no duty to update forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements and future results could differ materially from historical performance.
The following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking statements or historical performance: the introduction, withdrawal, success and timing of business initiatives and strategies; economic conditions; changes in interest rates and financial and capital markets; the investment performance of BlackRock's advised or sponsored investment products and separately managed accounts; competitive conditions; and the impact, extent and timing of technological changes and legislative and regulatory actions and reforms.
Please refer to each Trust's registration statement and to BlackRock's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2000 and subsequent reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a more detailed discussion of these and other factors.
SOURCE: BlackRock, Inc.
Contact: Investor - Paul Audet, 212-409-3555, paudet@blackrock.com, or
Media - Thomas Chang, 212-754-5503, tchang@blackrock.com, both of BlackRock,
Inc.
Website: http://www.blackrock.com/
