BlackRock eyes US income trust launch

BlackRock is to start test marketing a North American Income investment trust.

The group confirmed it will shortly begin to gauge UK investors interest for the trust, which would be co-managed by Bob Shearer and Kathleen Anderson, who are based in Princeton, New Jersey.

Both managers currently manage $36bn (£23.2bn) of assets for BlackRock, including the $22bn Equity Dividend fund.

The closed-ended vehicle is would target an initial dividend yield of 4.25 per cent, net of fees, and will predominantly invest in large cap stocks if the launch does go ahead.

The move by BlackRock comes a month after F&C Investments announced it was to launch a US equity investment trust called F&C Barrow Hanley US, targeting capital and income by trading in large caps.

F&C said it had hired Barrow, Hanley, Mewhinney and Strauss LLC, one of the US’s largest active managers of US value-orientated equities with assets under management of $66bn, to run the trust.