TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - June 12, 2012) - BlackRock Investments Canada Inc. (BlackRock Canada), an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK), today announced its intention to change the index which the iShares Broad Emerging Markets Fund (CWO) seeks to replicate.

"Updating CWO enables us to extend our existing line-up of fundamental indexing products," said Mary Anne Wiley, Managing Director and Head of iShares at BlackRock Canada. "As the market leader, our goal is to continually broaden and deepen our product offering and provide our clients and investors even more choice. This change demonstrates our commitment to our series of fundamentally-weighted ETFs as a complement to our suite of market-cap offerings. Investors in CWO will now benefit from an index methodology that takes account of total cash dividends, free cash flow, total sales, and book value when establishing the weight of a given company in the index."

Effective on or about July 1, 2012, CWO will seek to replicate the performance of the FTSE RAFI Emerging Markets Index in accordance with CWO's investment objective of providing investors with exposure to the return and performance, net of expenses, of an index selected by BlackRock Canada which measures the investment return of securities issued by companies domiciled or operating primarily in emerging market countries.

The prospectus disclosure of CWO will be updated to reflect the index change.

iShares' current fundamentally-weighted indexing products include:

• iShares Broad Emerging Markets Fund (CWO)
• iShares Canadian Fundamental Index Fund (CRQ)
• iShares International Fundamental Index Fund (CIE)
• iShares US Fundamental Index Fund (CLU)
• iShares Japan Fundamental Index Fund (CAD-Hedged) (CJP)

Further information on the iShares funds can be found at iShares.ca.

About BlackRock

BlackRock, Inc. is a leader in investment management, risk management and advisory services for institutional and retail clients worldwide. At March 31, 2012, BlackRock's AUM was US $3.684 trillion. BlackRock offers products that span the risk spectrum to meet clients' needs, including active, enhanced and index strategies across markets and asset classes. Products are offered in a variety of structures including separate accounts, mutual funds, iShares® (exchange-traded funds), and other pooled investment vehicles. BlackRock also offers risk management, advisory and enterprise investment system services to a broad base of institutional investors through BlackRock Solutions®. Headquartered in New York City, as of March 31, 2012, the firm has approximately 9,900 employees in 27 countries and a major presence in key global markets, including North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Middle East and Africa. For additional information, please visit the Company's website at [ www.blackrock.com ].

About iShares®ETFs

iShares is the global product leader in exchange traded funds with over 500 funds globally across equities, fixed income and commodities, which trade on 20 exchanges worldwide. The iShares Funds are bought and sold like common stocks on securities exchanges. The iShares Funds are attractive to many individual and institutional investors and financial intermediaries because of their relative low cost, tax efficiency and trading flexibility. Investors can purchase and sell shares through any brokerage firm, financial advisor, or online broker, and hold the funds in any type of brokerage account. The iShares customer base consists of the institutional segment of pension plans and fund managers, as well as the retail segment of financial advisors and high net worth individuals.

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