BlackRock Announces the Redemption of Certain Auction Market Preferred Stock.

NEW YORK -- BlackRock Preferred Income Strategies Fund, Inc. (NYSE: PSY), and BlackRock Preferred Opportunity Trust (NYSE: BPP) announced today the redemption of a portion of their issued and outstanding auction market preferred stock ("AMPS"), at liquidation preference of $25,000 per share, together with accrued and unpaid dividends thereon to the redemption date, if applicable.

The Depository Trust Company (DTC), the holder of record for the AMPS, determines by random lottery how the redemption will be allocated among each participant broker-dealer account that holds AMPS and each participant broker-dealer determines how to allocate each redemption among the holders of the AMPS held by it.

Please see redemption details for each fund's respective series of shares of AMPS below.

PSY:

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BPP:

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About BlackRock

BlackRock is one of the world's largest publicly traded investment management firms. At December 31, 2008, BlackRock's assets under management were $1.307 trillion. The firm manages assets on behalf of institutions and individuals worldwide through a variety of equity, fixed income, cash management and alternative investment products. In addition, a growing number of institutional investors use BlackRock Solutions([R]) investment system, risk management and financial advisory services. The firm is headquartered in New York City and has employees in 21 countries throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia Pacific. For additional information, please visit the firm's website at www.blackrock.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release, and other statements that BlackRock may make, may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, with respect to the BlackRock closed-end funds' future financial or business performance, strategies or expectations. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words or phrases such as "trend," "potential," "opportunity," "pipeline," "believe," "comfortable," "expect," "anticipate," "current," "intention," "estimate," "position," "assume," "outlook," "continue," "remain," "maintain," "sustain," "seek," "achieve," and similar expressions, or future or conditional verbs such as "will," "would," "should," "could," "may" or similar expressions.

BlackRock cautions that forward-looking statements are subject to numerous assumptions, risks and uncertainties, which change over time. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and BlackRock and the closed-end funds managed by BlackRock and its affiliates assume no duty to and do not undertake to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in forward-looking statements and future results could differ materially from historical performance.

The following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking statements or historical occurrences: (1) the ability of the funds to implement the redemption on a timely basis; (2) the effects of changes in market and economic conditions; (3) other legal and regulatory developments; and (4) other additional execution risks and uncertainties.