BlackRock Floating Rate Income Trust

Mitchell Garfin and David Delbos serve as co-portfolio managers. Garfin joined BlackRock in 2010 and is a Managing Director within the Global Credit team. Delbos is also a Managing Director and has been with the firm's leveraged-finance group since 2007. They operate with support from BlackRock's roughly 40-person bank-loan research and trading platform.

BGT sources loans primarily through BlackRock's established relationships with arranging banks and private-credit sponsors in the broadly syndicated loan market. The trust participates in primary loan syndications and also acquires positions in the secondary market. BlackRock's scale — managing over $100 billion in leveraged-finance assets across vehicles — gives the trust access to allocations that smaller managers may not see.

The trust targets senior secured floating-rate loans to non-investment-grade companies, typically with first-lien priority in the capital structure. Issuers range from large, publicly rated corporations to middle-market private companies. The trust may also hold second-lien loans and selectively invest in high-yield bonds. The focus is on current income rather than capital appreciation, with the portfolio weighted toward B and BB rated credits.

Yes. BGT employs structural leverage — typically around 30% of total managed assets — through credit facilities or preferred shares. This leverage amplifies the portfolio's income generation, which supports the trust's monthly distribution. However, it also magnifies the impact of interest-rate movements and credit losses on net asset value.

BGT is a closed-end fund with a fixed number of shares listed on the NYSE. Unlike open-end mutual funds, BGT does not face daily shareholder redemptions, which allows the managers to hold less-liquid loan positions without being forced sellers. This structure provides a permanence of capital that more closely resembles a private-credit vehicle, though shareholders can still buy and sell shares on the exchange at market prices that may diverge from the underlying NAV.

The trust does not publish explicit sector-exclusion lists, but its mandate to invest in senior secured loans naturally steers the portfolio toward industries with asset-heavy or contractual cash-flow characteristics. Historically, the trust has had limited exposure to speculative-growth sectors without tangible collateral or established revenue streams. The majority of holdings cluster in sponsored-backed companies across software, healthcare, telecommunications and business services.

BGT adopted a managed distribution plan in February 2024, setting a fixed monthly distribution rate. The plan calculates distributions as a percentage of the trust's trailing net asset value, aiming to provide consistent monthly income regardless of short-term portfolio earnings fluctuations. If earnings fall short of the distribution, the shortfall is funded by a return of capital, which reduces NAV. The February 2024 announcement set the rate at $0.1180 per share monthly, based on a 5% annualized distribution rate (per SEC filing, February 2024).