Last checked at 8 Jun 2023 09:00
RNS ANNOUNCEMENT
iShares III plc (the "Company")
BlackRock ESG Multi-Asset Conservative Portfolio UCITS ETF - ISIN(s): IE00BLP53M98, IE00BLP53N06, IE00BLB2GQ94BlackRock ESG Multi-Asset Moderate Portfolio UCITS ETF - ISIN(s): IE00BLLZQS08, IE00BLLZQ797, IE00BLB2GT26BlackRock ESG Multi-Asset Growth Portfolio UCITS ETF - ISIN(s): IE00BLLZQ805, IE00BLLZQ912, IE00BLB2GS19(collectively the "Funds")
08th June 2023
The Directors of the Company wish to advise you of certain changes that will be made to the Investment policy of the Funds for the purpose of complying with AMF ESG Rules.
The investment policy of the Funds will be updated to reflect the fact that 90% of the Funds' investments (excluding cash and government bonds of a MSCI ESG rating of BBB and above) will comprise of AMF Category 1 UCITS exchange traded funds managed by the Investment Manager or an affiliate.
The AMF is the financial services regulator in France, as these Funds are registered for distribution in the jurisdiction they must adhere to the requirements of the AMF. For ESG purposes a fund's ESG approach and/or characteristics will be assessed as falling into one of three AMF categories as outlined below;
Category 1: Significantly engaging approachCategory 2: Non-significantly engaging approachCategory 3: Not meeting the AMF's central communication standards
As a result of the update to the investment policy of the Funds, their AMF categorisation will be changed from category 3 to category 1.
These changes will take effect from or around 22 June 2023.
An electronic copy of the full shareholder letter shall be made available shortly for inspection at https://data.fca.org.uk/#/nsm/nationalstoragemechanism and available to download from the iShares website at https://www.ishares.com
We understand that investors may have questions in relation to this event. If you have any queries, but you do not have a usual iShares contact, you can contact iShares in your respective region on the below contact numbers and email addresses:
· If located in United Kingdom or if located in elsewhere than the below, you can contact iShares at: info@ishares.co.uk, or the helpline telephone number: +44 207 743 1500
· If located in Germany, you can contact iShares at: info@iShares.de, or the helpline telephone number: +49 89 42729 5858
· If located in Switzerland, you can contact iShares at: iSharesSwitzerland@BlackRock.com, or the helpline telephone number 0800 33 66 88
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