- BlackRock's iShares ceased tracking the investment results of Russian securities in its BRIC ETF and dropped the R in the name.
- The newly named BIC ETF will now track the performance of equities in Brazil, India, and China.
- The change comes as sanctions on Moscow restricted the fund from trading in Russian securities.
BlackRock's iShares will drop the R from its BRIC ETF after it stopped tracking and trading Russian securities, according to an SEC filing Thursday.
The original fund, called the iShares MSCI BRIC ETF, aimed to track the investment results of an index of equities in Brazil, Russia, India, and China. With Russian equities removed from the index, the R in BRIC was dropped too.
"The Fund's Index Provider has removed, as of March 9, 2022, Russian securities from the Underlying Index," the filings said.
The new Fund is called the iShares MSCI BIC ETF. The index now consists of stocks on the Brazilian, Indian, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong stock exchanges. The underlying index tracked by the Fund is still called the MSCI BRIC Index.
Heavy Western sanctions on Russia after it invaded Ukraine, together with restrictions imposed by Moscow, have made trading in most Russian assets virtually impossible for foreigners.
"These sanctions, the decision by Russia to suspend trading on the Moscow Exchange (MOEX) and prohibit non‑resident investors from executing security sales, and other events have led to changes in the Fund's Underlying Index," the SEC filing said.
The filings said the inability to trade in Russian securities may affect the Fund meeting its investment objectives. For starters, the stock market has been closed for almost two weeks.
"It is unknown when, or if, sanctions may be lifted or the Fund's ability to trade in Russian securities will resume," the filing said.
Roughly 30 million of BlackRock's 100 million clients of its ETFs and index funds use iShares. The $10 trillion asset manager, the biggest in the world, expects to pull in 100 million more within five years by adding new products.
Russia has been hit by extreme sanctions aimed at isolating it financially after it launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24. The ruble has crashed to all time lows, a number of stock exchanges, including London and New York, have stopped trading Russian company shares, and investors and traders have dumped their holdings of Russian assets.