BlackRock Energy and Resources Income Trust (BERI) began life as a blend of traditional energy and mining stocks, but broadened its remit in 2020 to include energy transition plays, with neutral positions of 30% each in conventional energy and energy transition, and 40% in mining. Its co-managers, Mark Hume (an energy expert) and Tom Holl (a mining specialist) describe the globally invested portfolio as ‘a trust for the 2020s and beyond', and dynamically allocate between the three segments in order to maximise capital and income returns and help mitigate the impact of temporarily unfavourable conditions in any one sector. Income is an important consideration, with the vast majority now arising naturally from dividends rather than being created through option writing, and the trust has recently posted a third year of consecutive dividend growth (following a rebasing in 2017), as well as raising its target dividend for FY24 to 4.5p per share. Based on total dividends of 4.425p per share for FY23, BERI currently yields 4.0%.
