BlackRock Greater Europe (BRGE)

BlackRock Greater Europe (BRGE) owns a concentrated portfolio of European companies designed to generate capital growth. At its heart, this is a quality growth portfolio focused on larger cap companies, but with the flexibility to invest across the market-cap spectrum and, recently, a more valuation-aware element has been added to the investment approach.

BRGE’s Performance has trailed the benchmark over five years, with an NAV total return of 9.6% compared to the FTSE World Europe ex UK’s 51.4%. The overarching reasons for this are related to sector and style, with value stocks, and sectors that BRGE is typically underweight such as financials, energy and utilities, performing well, in contrast to some of the sectors more associated with BRGE, such as the consumer discretionary luxury brands, technology and healthcare, where a much more mixed picture has developed.

Whereas BRGE’s core proposition as a quality growth investor is unchanged, the trust has seen some changes to management since November 2025. First, experienced investor Brian Hall joined the team as co-manager, bringing a more value-conscious approach. Second, more recently it was announced that long-term manager Stefan Gries had left BlackRock and his colleague Benjamin Moore would take over his role. Benjamin’s track record is also in quality growth investing, but similarly to Brian, he pays close attention to valuations.

BRGE’s board has also agreed a reduction in management fees, with the ongoing charges figure estimated to reduce from 0.95% to 0.78%, bringing it more into line with the Morningstar Europe peer group. BRGE’s discount is 7% and the board has made steady use of share buybacks to maintain a single-digit discount. Although BRGE’s yield, 1.3%, is relatively low, it has increased every year for twenty years and BRGE is one of the AIC’s dividend heroes.