The Templeton Global Equity Fund will invest in the Luxembourg-registered FTIF Templeton Global Fund (the target fund), which in turn deploys its assets into global companies.
“The launch of the [feeder fund] in Malaysia is timely, given the growing sophistication of local investors who better understand the benefit of diversifying investments geographically and have become more confident in investing globally,” said Sandeep Singh, country head of Malaysia.
The target fund was launched in 1991 and had $1.6bn in assets under management at the end of February.
The fund uses a value investing approach through bottom up stock picking, added Alan Chua, executive vice president and portfolio manager of the global equity group.
As per the portfolio on 28 February, the fund’s top stock holdings were in Amgen, China Telecom, Samsung Electronics, Microsoft and Nissan Motor.
In terms of geographic breakdown, the fund has invested 31.4% of its assets in the US, followed by 12.6% in the UK and 9% in France.
The fund has an overweight position in China with a 7.1% weighting compared to the 2.3% allocation of the MSCI All Country World Index.
The top three sector allocations were in the financial, healthcare and consumer discretionary companies, which accounted for 23%, 18% and 15.3% of the fund’s assets.
A look at the performance of the FTIF Templeton Global Fund against its benchmark index over the last three years:
