Tender Offer

Merrill Lynch Latin Amer Inv. Trust 23 January 2007 Merrill Lynch Latin American Investment Trust PLC Discount control mechanism The Board of Merrill Lynch Latin American Investment Trust PLC announces that it has consulted its broker Cenkos Securities regarding the possible forthcoming tender offer which would otherwise take place in March 2007. The Board has concluded that it will not on this occasion exercise its discretion to implement the next tender offer. The Board last announced its intention to implement a tender offer for up to 20 per cent of the issued share capital in the interim results announced on 8 August 2006 and subsequently implemented a tender offer under which 7,818,306 Shares (which represented 14.05 per cent of the issued share capital) were tendered. This tender was therefore undersubscribed. Since 8 August 2006, being the date on which the intention to implement a tender was last announced the NAV has increased from 323.56p per share to 396.68p being the NAV at the close of business on 22 January 2007 an increase of 73.12p (23.1 per cent with net income reinvested). Over the same period the Company's benchmark index, the MSCI EM Latin American Index, increased by 16.19 per cent. Over that period the shares have continued to trade within a tight discount range and on occasions have traded at a small premium. As at the close of business on 22 January the middle market price of the shares was 383.00p and the published NAV was 396.68p being a discount of 3.45% per cent. Against the background of the strong investment and share price performance over the period the Board have decided not to implement a tender offer on this occasion. In line with its discount control policy, the Board will however continue to monitor the share rating and any discount closely and will implement share repurchases in the market if the discount to net asset value widens to a level above a discount of 2 per cent to net asset value on a consistent basis, being the level at which the tender offer price has been implemented in the past. Enquiries Will Rogers, Cenkos Securities plc 020 7397 1920 Jonathan Ruck Keene, BlackRock 020 7743 3000 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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