Delbos David 4

What Happened
David Delbos, a portfolio manager at BlackRock Debt Strategies Fund (DSU), converted/settled 4,390.128 phantom shares and received cash from the issuer. The settlement price was $10.21 per phantom share, for total proceeds of $44,823. This was a cash settlement of phantom (derivative) units rather than an open-market sale of common stock.

Key Details

• Transaction date: January 30, 2026. Form filed: February 3, 2026.
• Instruments and codes: exercise/conversion of derivative (M) and disposition to issuer (D) for 4,390.128 phantom shares.
• Price and value: $10.21 per unit; total cash received $44,823.
• Shares owned after transaction: not disclosed in this filing.
• Footnotes: F1 — phantom shares are cash-settled equivalents of common shares. F2 — these phantom shares were originally granted on Jan 31, 2024 and vest in equal installments on each of the first three anniversaries of the grant.
• Filing timeliness: Form 4 shows the Jan 30 transaction and a Feb 3 filing date; the report does not include a separate late-filing indicator in the summary.

Context

• This was a cash settlement of phantom shares (a derivative award), not a market sale of DSU common stock. Such settlements reflect payout of a previously granted award on vesting rather than a direct indication of a manager buying or selling shares in the open market.
• For retail investors, note that cash-settled awards are routine compensation events and should be interpreted differently than voluntary open-market purchases or sales.