BlackRock Health Sciences Trust II (BMEZ) Announces Release of First Quarter Fund Commentary

By: BlackRock Closed-End Funds via Business Wire

April 26, 2021 at 09:20 AM EDT

BlackRock today announced the release of the first quarter fund commentary for BlackRock Health Sciences Trust II (NYSE: BMEZ, CUSIP: 09260E105 or the “Trust”). BMEZ is a closed-end fund that takes a unique approach to investing in the healthcare sector by blending “next generation” healthcare stocks and private investments along with a tactical single-stock option-writing strategy to generate income to support the Trust’s monthly distribution. Key takeaways are listed below:

BMEZ has returned 36% on market price¹ since its IPO in January 2020, outperforming the MSCI World Healthcare Index by 22%

On March 1, 2021 BMEZ announced a 45% increase in its monthly distribution and now has an annualized distribution rate of 6.4%². Since inception, the Trust has paid $1.25 per share in distributions³

BMEZ holds 22 private investments⁴ (7% of the portfolio) as of 3/31/21. The Trust continues to seek opportunities to harvest the illiquidity premium by taking advantage of the “closed” structure and add exposure to private investments

Find more information on BMEZ’s portfolio positioning and performance in the commentary linked below:

BMEZ First Quarter 2021 Commentary

For more information on BlackRock’s closed-end funds, please visit www.blackrock.com/CEF

¹As of 3/31/2021

²Distribution rate is calculated by annualizing the latest declared distribution and dividing by the closing market price on 4/22/2021.

³The Trust has adopted a managed distribution plan to support a level distribution of income, capital gains and/or return of capital. If sufficient investment income is not available on a monthly basis, the Trust will distribute long-term capital gains and/or return capital to shareholders in order to maintain the level distribution. You should not draw any conclusions about the Trust 's investment performance from the amount of these distributions or from the terms of the Trust 's managed distribution plan. The Trust estimates that it has distributed more than its income and net realized capital gains; therefore, a portion of past distributions may be a return of capital. A return of capital may occur, for example, when some or all of the money that you invested in the fund is paid back to you. A return of capital distribution does not necessarily reflect the Trust 's investment performance and should not be confused with ‘yield’ or ‘income'.

⁴The information above is not a prediction of future performance or any assurance that comparable investment opportunities will be available at the time of investment. It is non-representative of all underlying investments made by the Investment Team and it should not be assumed that Investment Team will invest in comparable investments, or that any future Investments made by Investment Team will be successful. To the extent that these investments prove to be profitable, it should not be assumed that the Investment Team’s other investments will be profitable or will be as profitable.”

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