Franklin Templeton Investments


Franklin Resources Inc. is an American multinational holding company that, together with its subsidiaries, is referred to as Franklin Templeton; it is a global investment firm founded in New York City in 1947 as Franklin Distributors, Inc. It is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol BEN, in honor of Benjamin Franklin, for whom the company is named, and who was admired by founder Rupert Johnson, Sr. In 1973 the company's headquarters moved from New York to San Mateo, California. As of December 31, 2019, Franklin Templeton held US$698 billion in assets under management on behalf of private, professional and institutional investors.

History

The company was founded in 1947 in New York by Rupert H. Johnson, Sr., who ran a successful retail brokerage firm from an office on Wall Street. He named the company for American polymath Benjamin Franklin because Franklin espoused frugality and prudence when it came to saving and investing. The company's first line of mutual funds, Franklin Custodian Funds, was a series of conservatively managed equity and bond funds designed to appeal to most investors.
After Rupert Sr. retired, his son, Charles B. Johnson, took over as president and chief executive officer in 1957 at age 24. At that time the funds had total assets under management of US$2.5 million. Rupert Johnson, Jr., Charlie's brother, joined the company in 1965.
Franklin went public in 1971. In 1973, the company acquired Winfield & Company, a San Mateo, California-based investment firm, and moved Franklin's offices from New York to California. The combined organization had close to US$250 million in assets under management and approximately 60 employees. In 1979, Franklin Money Fund began a growth surge that made it Franklin's first billion-dollar fund and launched the company's significant asset growth in the 1980s.
Starting in 1980, the company's total assets under management doubled every year for the next six years. The company's stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in 1986. In the same year, the company opened its first office outside North America in Taiwan. In 1988, Franklin acquired L.F. Rothschild Fund Management Company. Assets under management for Franklin grew from just over US$2 billion in 1982 to more than US$40 billion in 1989.
In October 1992, Franklin acquired Templeton, Galbraith & Hansberger Ltd. for a reported cost of $913 million, leading to the common name Franklin Templeton. Mutual fund pioneer Sir John Templeton was the owner of Templeton, Galbraith & Hansberger Ltd together with his son Dr. John Templeton and John Galbraith who together owned 70% of the firm.
In November 1996, Heine Securities Corporation, known for the Mutual Series of funds, merged into the Franklin Templeton complex. In October 2000, Franklin acquired Bissett Funds to increase its Canadian presence, and Bissett remains a key brand from Franklin in the Canadian market. The Fiduciary Trust Company was acquired by Franklin Templeton in April 2001.
Fiduciary Trust Company International, a member of the Franklin family, maintained an office of over 650 employees in Two World Trade Center at the time of the September 11 attacks in 2001. 87 employees died in the collapse.
The firm has specialized expertise across a full range of asset classes. It offers products under the Franklin, Templeton, Mutual Series and Fiduciary brand names, among others. Like other large investment companies, the firm offers a wide variety of funds but is traditionally best known for bond funds under the Franklin brand, international funds under the Templeton brand, and value funds under the Mutual Series brand.
In April 2007, Franklin Resources was 445th in the Fortune 500, and 7th overall among securities companies. The same month, USA Today listed BEN stock as the top stock pick for the last 25 years based on returns, claiming it is up 64,224% since 1982. As of July 31, 2008, Franklin Resources, Inc. managed over $570 billion in total assets worldwide. In February 2009, Barron's Magazine called Franklin Templeton "King of the Decade" among fund families over the ten-year period ending in 2008.
In 2013, Charles Johnson retired as chairman and his son Greg Johnson became chairman of the board, CEO and president.
In 2019, Thomas Gahan was named head of alternatives following the firm's 2018 acquisition of Benefit Street Partners, an alternative credit investment group.
In 2020, Jennifer M. Johnson became CEO and President of the firm and Greg Johnson became Executive Chairman.
In 2020, Franklin Templeton entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Legg Mason, Inc. The acquisition of Legg Mason and its multiple investment affiliates, which collectively manage over $806 billion in assets as of January 31, 2020, will establish Franklin Templeton as one of the world's largest independent, specialized global investment managers with a combined $1.5 trillion in assets under management.

Mutual funds

Franklin Templeton has over 455 different open-ended mutual funds and 7 closed-end funds in the fund family. Included in these are 27 state and federal tax-free income funds, an area of investment pioneered by Franklin.
Prominent funds in the fund family include the Templeton Growth Fund, Inc., and the Mutual Discovery Fund and the Templeton Growth Fund A .
The Franklin Income Fund.

Franklin Templeton India Managed Credit Funds Wind Ups

The Trustees of Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund in India announced that they, after careful analysis and review of the recommendations submitted by Franklin Templeton AMC, and in close consultation with the investment team, voluntarily decided to wind up their suite of six yield-oriented, managed credit funds, effective April 23, 2020.
In light of the severe market dislocation and illiquidity caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, this decision was taken in order to protect value for investors via a managed sale of the portfolio.
This action was limited to six specific India-domiciled managed credit funds, which have material direct exposure to the higher yielding, lower rated credit securities in India that have been most impacted by the ongoing liquidity crisis in the market. All other funds managed by Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund in India – equity, debt and hybrid – were unaffected by this decision. These other funds are managed by independent teams of
investment managers and continue to perform as per their respective investment mandates.
The general practice in case of winding up is to preserve the value of fund as on date of announcement. But Franklin Templeton India unit decided to not follow this due to lax local regulations around such event. This has caused considerable distraught and mistrust with investors who are fearing loss of more than 50% principal besides time. Happening at time of Covid 19 pandemic, few investors have decided to knock on courts door to help releasing their money. The Indian courts in turn have blocked the disbursal of money and has order audit of fund house for their purported mismanagement and kickbacks.