Mobius' emerging market dominance weakens as fund suffers outflows
Mark Mobius' emerging market dominance weakens as Templeton fund suffers record outflows, allowing rivals to close the gap
Mark Mobius' Templeton Asian Growth Fund, Asia's biggest equity mutual fund, suffered record outflows in the March quarter in a sign investors are losing faith with the emerging markets guru.
Returns from Mobius' US$11.7 billion fund from Franklin Templeton Investment missed the benchmark last year by the most in 14 years, after some of the stocks Mobius selected fell as a result of political unrest in Thailand and waning appetite for commodities in China.
The fund recovered in January-March to make money in a volatile quarter for emerging market equities, but investors still pulled out a net US$1.9 billion, showed estimates by global fund tracker Lipper.
The outflows, at over 14 per cent of the fund's December-end assets, compared with US$5.8 billion net outflows or 5 per cent of assets managed by the rest of Asia ex-Japan equity funds in the March quarter, showed data from Lipper.
If … markets in general continue to pick up, we will see the flows coming back
The shift marks a major change in the fund's fortunes, threatening to end Franklin Templeton's emerging market dominance, with assets of rival funds from First State Investments and Aberdeen Asset Management closing the gap to the narrowest in nearly five years.
"2013 was a tough year for emerging markets, particularly in Asia," said Stephen Grundlingh, Franklin Templeton's regional head for Southeast Asia.