Principal
Investment Strategies of the Fund
The Fund seeks to achieve its investment objective through a fully managed investment
policy utilizing global equity securities. For purposes of the Fund’s investment policies, equity securities include common stock, preferred stock, warrants, depositary receipts, and securities and other instruments whose price is linked to the value of common stock.
The combination of equity securities will be varied from time to time both with respect to types of securities and markets in response to changing market and economic trends. The
Fund may also purchase convertible securities. Under normal circumstances, the Fund invests at least 80% of its net assets (plus any borrowings for investment purposes) in equity and equity-related securities. This policy is a non-fundamental policy of the Fund and may not be
changed without 60 days’ prior notice to the Fund’s shareholders.
The Fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing in equity securities of corporate issuers (which may include corporations, partnerships, trusts or other corporate-like entities) located around the world. The Fund has no
geographic limits on where its investments may be located. This flexibility allows Fund management to look for investments in markets around the world that it believes will provide the best relative returns to meet the Fund’s
investment objective. The Fund may invest in the securities of companies of any market capitalization. The Fund may also invest in the securities of emerging growth companies.
The Fund is actively managed using an unconstrained investment style (i.e., it will not take a benchmark index into
account when selecting the Fund’s investments). Fund management, in its sole discretion, may invest in securities that are not included in the MSCI World Index. The Fund’s portfolio holdings are expected to deviate materially from
the MSCI World Index. The Fund may have exposure to a limited number of different investments, countries and/or sectors.
The Fund may use derivatives, including options, futures, swaps and forward contracts both to seek to increase the return of the Fund and to hedge (or protect) the value of its assets against adverse movements in currency exchange
rates, interest rates and movements in the securities markets. In order to effectively manage cash flows into or out of the Fund, the Fund may buy and sell financial futures contracts or options on such contracts. Derivatives are financial
instruments whose value is derived from another security, a commodity (such as oil or gas), a currency or an index.
The Fund may invest a portion of its assets in securities directly or indirectly
secured by real estate or interests therein or issued by companies that invest in real estate or interests therein such as stock, bonds or convertible bonds issued by real estate investment trusts (“REITs”).
The Fund may invest in both developed and emerging markets. In addition to investing in foreign securities, the Fund may
manage its exposure to foreign currencies through the use of forward currency contracts and other currency derivatives. However, foreign exchange risk is not expected to be
systematically hedged. From time to time, the Fund may own foreign cash equivalents or foreign bank deposits as part of the Fund’s investment strategy. The Fund may also invest in non-U.S. currencies.
The Fund may invest in indexed and inverse securities.
To determine the Fund’s investable universe, Fund management will first seek to screen out certain issuers based on
environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) criteria determined by BlackRock Advisors, LLC (“BlackRock”), subject to the considerations noted below. Such screening criteria principally includes: (i) issuers that derive more than zero
percent of revenue from the production of controversial weapons; (ii) issuers that derive more than zero percent of revenue from the production of civilian firearms; (iii) issuers that derive more than zero percent of revenue from direct
involvement in the production of nuclear weapons or nuclear weapon components or delivery platforms, or the
provision of auxiliary services related to nuclear weapons; (iv) issuers that derive more than zero percent of revenue from the production of tobacco-related products; (v) issuers that derive more than five percent of revenue from
tobacco-related activities; (vi) issuers that derive more than five percent of revenue from thermal coal generation, unless such issuers either (a) have made certain commitments to reduce climate impact or (b) derive at least fifty
percent of revenue from alternative energy sources; (vii) issuers that derive more than five percent of revenue from thermal coal mining; (viii) issuers that derive more than five percent of revenue from oil sands extraction; (ix) issuers
identified as violators of the United Nations Global Compact, which are globally accepted principles covering corporate behavior in the areas of human rights, labor, environment, and anti-corruption. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Fund
may invest in green bonds of issuers that exceed the thresholds stated in (vi), (vii) or (viii) above. The Fund relies on one or more third-party ratings agencies to identify issuers for purposes of the above screening criteria. Third-party
rating agencies may base the above screening criteria on an estimate when revenue for a covered business activity is not disclosed by the issuer or publicly available.
The Fund’s screening criteria is measured at the time of investment and is dependent upon information and data that
may be incomplete, inaccurate, unavailable or estimated. Where the Fund’s criteria looks solely to third-party ratings or