Portfolio Turnover. The Fund may pay
transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in
a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund's performance.
Principal Investment Strategies
The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the MSCI
Emerging Markets ex China Index (the “Underlying Index”), which is designed to measure equity market performance in global emerging markets (with the exception of China). The Underlying Index is a free float-adjusted market
capitalization weighted index that captures large- and mid-capitalization stocks across 22 of the 23 Emerging Markets countries (as defined by MSCI Inc. (the “Index Provider” or “MSCI”)), excluding China. The Underlying Index
covers approximately 85% of the free float-adjusted market capitalization of each of the following countries: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, Poland,
Qatar, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. For purposes of determining capitalization, the Index Provider divides the investable universe of each country into large-, mid-, and small-cap based on
the issuer’s market capitalization as a
percentage of the total market. As of April 28, 2017, a significant portion of
the Underlying Index is represented by securities of financials and information technology companies. The components of the Underlying Index, and the degree to which these components represent certain industries, are likely to change over
time.
As of its inception date, the Fund intends to seek
to achieve its investment objective by investing all or a portion of its assets that are invested in India through one or more iShares exchange-traded funds (each an “ETF” or an “Underlying Fund”). However, BFA is not
required to invest any portion, or any particular percentage, of the Fund’s assets in an Underlying Fund.
BFA uses a “passive” or 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 keeping 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