Franklin Templeton Celebrates 25 Years of Wealth Creation Through Equities in India

By Samachar Vishesh News

Chandigarh 14^th March, 2019:- Franklin Templeton, a leading foreign fund house in the country, is celebrating a remarkable journey through India’s economic & corporate evolution with Franklin India Blue chip Fund and Franklin India Prima Fund, two of the oldest equity funds that have completed 25 years. The two schemes were the first to be launched in December 1993 after the mutual fund industry was thrown open to the private sector.

Speaking on the occasion, Vivek Kudva, Managing Director, EMEA & India, Franklin Templeton commented that the 25-year journey has been quite eventful.  Our experience has given us a better understanding of the Indian Asset Management industry as well as the challenges and nuances of managing a rapidly growing, digitally enabled business, driven by rising investor expectations. He added further that the industry is moving into the next phase of growth due to a growing middle class with rising incomes, a shift in savings from gold and real estate to financial assets, a gradual reduction in the relative size of the informal economy, a large and growing millennial population and widespread digitalization of investments. We look forward to continue to help our investors ‘Reach For Better’ with wealth creation opportunities backed by our global and local asset management expertise.

Elaborating further on the occasion, Sanjay Sapre, President, Franklin Templeton - India said that we are proud that our schemes have helped investors achieve their financial goals over the past twenty-five years. To perform consistently and create wealth for investors over two and a half decades is a testimony to the investment philosophy of Franklin Templeton and a reflection of the depth and experience of our investment team. In this 25 year journey, we have built a small but well diversified product line up. Out of our 35 open-end funds, 9 funds have a 20 plus year track record including two with a 25-year history, and another 17 funds have a 10 year plus history. In all, more than two-third of our funds have over a decade of performance to showcase. We recently entered Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) business.  We plan to build a robust alternatives platform over the long term and bring some of our global capabilities in this space to India. Solutions-based products are another area of focus for us in India and globally, and we aim to not only launch relevant products, but also partner with investors and distributors to create custom solutions.

Speaking about the experience, Anand Radhakrishnan, Managing Director & Chief Investment Officer–Emerging Markets Equity, Franklin Templeton-India said that markets often throw up surprises and investing is a continuous learning process. The track record of these funds is an indication that equities can potentially yield good results over a longer time horizon. The experience of investing through market cycles has helped us realize that the key to successful investing is a level head, ability to ignore the noise and having a long-term perspective.  It also highlights the discipline that we followed as a team in steering these funds across market cycles.  The role of individual judgement aided by a team of continuously evolving researchers cannot be under emphasized at this moment.  After all, longevity is one of the key factors that best explains quality of results.