Templeton rules the roast

Identifying trends before they gain popularity has enabled Franklin Templeton India to out perform the BSE Sensex and S&P CNX 500 by a wide margin. Pradeep Rane reports.
Franklin Templeton Investments (India), one of the leading fund houses in the country was in the news last week. On February 16, this year, it made history by mobilising a record Rs1,995 crore for the IPO of its new mutual fund, the Templeton Flexicap Fund, the largest by any open-ended fund in the country and more than two-and-a-half times the previous record of Rs750 crore set in January 2005 by The Tata Infrastructure Fund.

The next day, the company won the prestigious 'Crisil-CNBC mutual fund of the year award' () for the performance of its funds.

In the past few years the US-based Franklin Templeton, which manages $388.9 billion in assets globally, has emerged as a major player in the asset management business in India.

Analysts see the response to the Flexicap IPO as a recognition of Franklin Templeton's established strengths in stock picking and equity fund management. The new fund seeks to provide medium to long-term capital appreciation by investing in stocks across the entire market
capitalisation range.

Its existing equity funds like Franklin India Bluechip Fund, Prima Fund, Templeton India Growth Fund have been rated as being among the best performing equity funds in the country. For instance, its flagship scheme, Franklin India Bluechip Fund, has given a return of 24.6 per cent in the last one year, 50.4 per cent in the last three years and 27.9 per cent since inception.

All its equity funds have outperformed the benchmark indices like BSE Sensex and S&P CNX 500 with a wide margin. Even funds like Franklin India Prime Fund have shown outstanding performance. This fund has offered a return of 36.4 pr cent in the last one year, 76.5 per cent for the last three years and 24.1 per cent since inception. This is the reason for the remarkable success of the Flexicap IPO, which mobilised funds from 2 lakh investors.