Franklin Templeton Investments is closing its Frontier Markets Fund to new investors on June 28, Money Management Executive has learned.
The $1.15 billion fund, which launched in October 2008, bets on securities of companies located in "frontier market countries" such as the Middle East, Africa and the Caribbean. Allan Lam and Tom Wu are the portfolio managers of the fund.
“The decision to soft close the Templeton Frontier Markets funds follows a recent surge in flows into those dedicated strategies,” wrote Matt Walsh, a spokesman for the firm, in an email statement.
“While the Templeton Emerging Markets Group does not see any capacity issues within the frontier markets universe, the soft close is a way to best manage the flows coming into the dedicated frontier market portfolios. Templeton remains optimistic on the long]term growth trajectory of the frontier market asset class and will continue to invest opportunistically in frontier market stocks both for the dedicated frontier market strategies and within the broader emerging markets strategies.”
