Santiago Kristi Manidis 4

What Happened
Santiago Kristi Manidis, a portfolio manager at BlackRock Investment Quality Municipal Trust (BKN), exercised/converted 50.131 phantom shares (derivative) and the economic interest was settled to the issuer on Jan 30, 2026, resulting in a disposition for $11.45 per share (total about $574). This was a cash settlement of phantom/share-equivalent units rather than an open-market sale.

Key Details

• Transaction date: 2026-01-30. Report filed: 2026-02-03 (filing appears to be later than the standard two-business-day window).
• Actions reported: M (exercise/conversion of derivative) and D (disposition to issuer).
• Shares/units converted and disposed: 50.131; price reported for the disposition: $11.45; total cash received ≈ $574.
• Shares owned after transaction: Not disclosed in the Form 4.
• Footnotes: F1 explains a "phantom share" is the economic equivalent of one common share payable in cash on vesting. F2 notes these phantom shares were originally granted Jan 31, 2025 and vest in equal installments on each of the first three anniversaries of the grant.

Context
This was a derivative/phantom-share cash settlement (exercise/conversion immediately followed by disposition to the issuer), not an open-market purchase or sale of common stock. Such settlements commonly reflect routine vesting and payout of deferred/phantom equity awards and do not, by themselves, indicate a change in the manager’s view of the stock.