Investment trusts come in all shapes and sizes offering Stocks and Shares ISA investors various ways to generate attractive returns.
One that has done really well for my portfolio recently is Pacific Horizon Investment Trust — it’s up 64% in the past 12 months. As the name implies, it’s focused on the Asia Pacific region.
Here, I’ll highlight one that’s focused on another particular part of the world.
This trust is flying
The name in question is BlackRock Latin American Investment Trust (LSE:BRLA). It doesn’t get much coverage as it only sports a £133m market cap. This small size excludes it from the FTSE 250, which is home to larger trusts like the aforementioned Pacific Horizon.
However, this hasn’t stopped it rocketing over 50% in the past year. Many Latin American firms have been getting a boost from a weak US dollar, higher commodity prices and investors seeking global diversity due to unpredictable US policy.
Take Chile for example, which is the world’s largest copper producer, accounting for around a quarter of the world’s copper supply. It’s also one of the world’s largest producers of lithium.
These resources are vital for the energy transition, with copper needed for electrification and lithium an important component in battery technology. In the past year, the price of these metals has soared 21% and 108%, respectively.
BlackRock Latin American’s top holding is Brazil’s Vale, the world’s largest producer of iron ore and nickel. The latter is a key component in electric vehicle batteries.
The second-largest holding is Southern Copper, a pureplay Peruvian copper giant with massive low-cost mines in Peru and Mexico.
Brazil and Mexico
Fortunately, the trust is about more than miners. It also has chunky positions in two Brazilian FinTechs: Nu Holdings (Nubank), the world’s largest digital bank outside of Asia and StoneCo. Nubank now has 131m customers!
A significant proportion of the portfolio is invested in Brazilian equities, which is unsurprising given that Brazil is the largest economy in Latin America by some distance. The Brazilian stock market is booming right now, so this has boosted performance.
However, nearly a quarter is in Mexico, a key beneficiary of the near-shoring of global supply chains (US companies moving manufacturing away from China, for example).
Key Mexican holdings are Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste, the operator of several airports (including Cancun, where tourism is booming), Walmart de México (Walmex) and bank Grupo Financiero Banorte.
Looking at the portfolio, I think there’s a really good mix, albeit the huge weighting to Brazil adds concentration risk.
4.4% dividend yield
Another thing worth mentioning here is that the trust has lagged its Latin American index benchmark by an average of 3.3% a year in the past four years. So it has underperformed.
However, performance has picked up notably in 2026 and there’s a 4.4% dividend yield on offer. Moreover, the trust is trading at a 9.2% discount to net asset value.
In February, it wrote: “We remain constructive on Latin American equities. Strong inflows, a softer US dollar and resilient commodity prices have continued to support the region into 2026, while valuations remain reasonable despite a powerful start to the year“.
For investors looking for exposure to cheap Latin American stocks that pay a decent dividend, this trust is one worth thinking about.
