The Fund seeks to meet its investment objective generally by investing in component securities of the Bloomberg 2030 Term High Yield and Income Index (the “Underlying Index”). The Fund may also invest in other exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”), U.S. government securities, short-term paper, cash and cash equivalents, including shares of money market funds advised by BFA or its affiliates.
The Fund is a term fund that will terminate on or about December 15,
2030, at which time it will distribute its remaining net assets to shareholders pursuant to a plan of liquidation. The Fund does not seek to return any predetermined amount at maturity or in periodic distributions. The Underlying Index is composed of U.S. dollar denominated, taxable, fixed-rate, high yield (which are considered below investment-grade and commonly referred to as “junk bonds”) and BBB or equivalently rated (as determined by Bloomberg Index Services Limited (the “Index Provider” or “Bloomberg”)) corporate bonds scheduled to mature between January 1, 2030 and December 15, 2030, inclusive. As of October 31, 2023, the Underlying Index includes approximately 189 component securities. Securities eligible for inclusion in the Underlying Index are selected from a universe of corporate issuers (e.g., industrial, financial institutions, utilities) determined by Bloomberg. As of October 31, 2023, a significant portion of the Underlying Index is represented by securities of companies in the consumer cyclical and consumer staples industries or sectors. The components of the Underlying Index are likely to change over time.
The bonds in the Underlying Index have $250 million or more of outstanding face value at the time of inclusion. The non-U.S. corporate issuers included in the Underlying Index consist primarily of corporate bonds issued by companies domiciled in developed countries. The Fund will invest in non-U.S. issuers to the extent necessary for it to track the Underlying Index. Each bond included in the Underlying Index must be registered with the SEC, have been exempt from registration at issuance, or have been offered pursuant to Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “1933 Act”). Subject to the methodology of the Underlying Index discussed below, the securities in the Underlying Index may carry a coupon that steps-up according to a predetermined schedule (i.e., the interest rate paid on such securities will increase over time). Securities are market-cap weighted within the Underlying Index, with a 3% cap typically imposed on any one issuer, and a pro rata distribution of any excess weight across the remaining issuers in the Underlying Index.
The securities in the Underlying Index are updated on the last calendar day of each month until six months before maturity, with the last rebalance date on June 30, 2030.
The Underlying Index consists of bonds chosen from two sub-indices, the Bloomberg U.S. High Yield Index (the “High Yield Index”) and the Bloomberg U.S. Corporate Index (the “Corporate Index”), both of which are stripped of securities maturing outside of the maturity range defined above. BBB-rated bonds from the Corporate Index will be introduced to the Underlying Index under the following conditions: (1) in the last 1.5 years but before the last 6
months of the Underlying Index’s term, the Underlying Index will introduce BBB-rated bonds (which are considered investment-grade) as constituent high yield bonds (which are considered below investment-grade) are called, no longer qualify for inclusion (due to, among other factors, sector reclassifications of issuers, changes in the credit rating of bonds included in the Underlying Index or rebalances to maintain issuer limits), or decline in value compared to a reference point set at 1.5 years from the Underlying Index’s term or (2) if, prior to the last 1.5 years remaining in the Underlying Index’s term, the market value of the high yield bonds in the Underlying Index declines below $30 billion, the Underlying Index will add BBB-rated bonds to maintain a $30 billion minimum market value for the Underlying Index. In the final year of the Underlying Index’s term, any principal and interest paid by index constituents is treated as follows: (1) during the first six months of the final year, the Underlying Index reinvests proceeds pro-rata into the remaining bonds in the Underlying Index, and (2) during the last six months of the final year, principal is not reinvested and is presumed to be held in cash while earning no interest.
Bonds with a clean price (i.e., the price does not include accrued interest between coupon payments) below $60 are excluded from the Underlying Index and subject to a 3 month lock-out period before they are eligible for inclusion again at rebalance. During the final 1.5 years of the maturity of the index, bonds that fall below $60 at rebalance will be permanently ineligible for the Underlying Index.
In addition, to be included in the Underlying Index, securities must be
rated “high yield” to be selected from the High Yield Index and “BBB” to be selected from the Corporate Index. The bonds from the High Yield Index must have a rating equal to or below “Ba1”/”BB+”/”BB+” and above “CC”. The bonds from the Corporate Index must have a rating of “BBB” (or equivalent). The Index Provider will use the middle rating of Moody’s Investors Service, Inc. “Moody’s”), Standard & Poor’s® Global Ratings, a subsidiary of S&P Global “S&P Global Ratings”) and Fitch Ratings, Inc. (“Fitch”) when a rating from all three agencies is available; when a rating from only two agencies is available, the lower is used; when only one agency rates a bond, that rating is used. In cases where ratings are not available, other sources may be used to classify bonds by investment quality.
The Fund is a series of the iShares iBonds fixed maturity series of bond ETFs sponsored by BlackRock, Inc. “BlackRock”). The Fund does not invest in U.S. savings bonds or other U.S. government bonds (except to the extent the Fund holds cash equivalent instruments consistent with its investment objective) and is not designed to provide protection against inflation.
BFA uses an indexing approach to try to achieve the Fund’s investment objective. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not try to “beat” the index it tracks and does not seek temporary defensive positions when markets decline or appear overvalued.
Indexing may eliminate the chance that the Fund will substantially outperform the Underlying Index but also may reduce some of the risks of active management, such as poor security
selection. Indexing seeks to achieve lower costs and better after-tax performance by aiming to keep portfolio turnover low in comparison to actively managed investment companies.
BFA uses a representative sampling indexing strategy to manage the Fund. “Representative sampling” is an indexing strategy that involves investing in a representative sample of securities that collectively has an investment profile similar to that of an applicable underlying index. The securities selected are expected to have, in the aggregate, investment characteristics (based on factors such as market value and industry weightings), fundamental characteristics (such as return variability, duration (i.e., a security's price sensitivity to a change in interest rates), maturity or credit ratings and yield) and liquidity measures similar to those of an applicable underlying index. The Fund may or may not hold all of the securities in the Underlying Index.
The Fund will invest at least 80% of its assets in the component instruments of the Underlying Index, and (except during the last twelve months of the Fund’s operations) the Fund will invest at least 90% of its assets in fixed income securities of the types included in the Underlying Index that BFA believes will help the Fund track the Underlying Index. The Fund will invest no more than 10% of its assets in futures, options and swaps contracts that BFA believes will help the Fund track the Underlying Index as well as in fixed income securities other than the types included in the Underlying Index, but which BFA believes will help the Fund track the Underlying Index. Cash and cash equivalent investments associated with a derivative position will be treated as part of that position for the purposes of
calculating the percentage of investments included in the Underlying Index.
In the last six months of operation, as the bonds held by the Fund mature, the proceeds may not be reinvested by the Fund in bonds but instead will be held in cash and cash equivalents. By fifteen days prior to maturity, the Underlying Index is expected to consist almost entirely of cash and cash equivalents. On or around this date, the Fund will wind up and terminate, and its net assets will be distributed to then-current shareholders pursuant to a plan of liquidation.
The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Underlying Index before fees and expenses of the Fund. To the extent that the Fund invests in money market or similar funds, it will incur the fees and expenses of such funds.
The Fund should not be confused with a target date fund, which has assets that are managed according to a particular investment strategy that converts fund assets to conservative investments over time.
The Fund may lend securities representing up to one-third of the value of the Fund's total assets (including the value of any collateral received).
The Underlying Index is sponsored by Bloomberg, which is independent of the Fund and BFA. The Index Provider determines the composition and relative weightings of the securities in the Underlying Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Underlying Index.
Industry Concentration Policy. The Fund will concentrate its investments i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group
of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.