Image shows (from right) Singh and Chua. The Fund aims to provide capital appreciation by investing in the target fund with the objective of investing in equity securities of companies throughout the world, including Emerging Markets.
KUCHING: Franklin Templeton Asset Management Sdn. Bhd (Franklin Templeton) will launch the Templeton Global Equity Fund on Monday, April 13 for qualified investors in Malaysia.
According to a press release, the fund is a wholesale fund that is structured as a feeder fund which invests up to 95 per cent of its net asset value (NAV) into the Luxembourg-registered, FTIF Templeton Global Fund.
For the first time, Malaysians are able to access the expertise of the Templeton Global Equity Group (TGEG) the investment team behind the Target Fund, which seeks investment opportunities from equity markets around world.
Sandeep Singh, country head of Malaysia said, “The target fund has a long track record of over 20 years and an asset size of over US$1.6 billion.
The investment team of the target fund, TGEG was established by the late Sir John Templeton in 1940, a pioneer of international value-oriented investing.
“The Group manages over US$120 billion in assets and consists of 24 portfolio managers/analysts and 16 research analysts located in offices around the world.
“Their presence around the globe aids the Group in developing a more accurate understanding of the reality in the local markets, and allows them to better discern risks and spot investment opportunities.”
Singh added, “The launch of the fund in Malaysia is timely, given the growing sophistication of local investors who better understand the benefit of diversifying investments geographically and have become more confident in investing globally.
“Against the backdrop of volatile local market conditions in the recent months, strength of US economic growth, the determination by the European policy makers to revive its economy, and the growth in Asia, a truly diversified global equity fund provides investors with the opportunity to tap investment opportunities across different countries and sectors, and effectively diversify risks.”
Alan Chua, executive vice president and portfolio manager of Templeton Global Equity Group said, “We are committed to the value-oriented investment approach where portfolios are built from the bottom-up, on a stock-by-stock basis.
“This approach enables us to evaluate investment opportunities from a very different perspective. We evaluate companies for earnings and asset appreciation potential in relation to their stock price, and then compare each company to others in their industry, both regionally and globally.
“This leads us to uncover a wide range of bargain stocks, which often tend to be unappreciated and unloved stocks as they have either been out of favour or simply not yet discovered by the market.”
Chua continued, “For example, when our team was going long on select European financial stocks at the height of the European debt crisis in the late 2011, it raised a lot of eyebrows in the market. We believe headline concerns obscured opportunities in this sector and banking stocks with strong fundamentals were oversold.
“Therein lies investment opportunities for patient, value-oriented investors. Our patience and conviction paid off two years later when the European banking sector slowly recovered and emerged stronger and well-capitalised.”
The Fund aims to provide capital appreciation by investing in the target fund with the objective of investing in equity securities of companies throughout the world, including Emerging Markets. The Target Fund’s inception has an asset size of over US$1.6 billion.