Franklin Templeton Drops out of European Top 20

Franklin Templeton has fallen out of a list of the 20 biggest mutual fund managers in Europe in a huge blow for the $734bn investor that once ranked among the continent’s most popular investment houses.  Its assets under management have declined by a fifth over the four years to the end of June.

The New York-listed group, which has had operations in Europe since just after the second world war, has slipped from its position as Europe’s fifth-largest mutual fund manager in 2013 to outside the top 20 five years later as investors fled over performance concerns – two of its “blockbuster funds” : the Global Total Return Bond and its Global Bond funds run by Michael Hasenstab — fell out of favour following the taper tantrum of 2013.

Franklin ranked as the worst-selling fund manager globally so far this year, with more than $20.6bn in client redemptions between January and June. The emerging market specialist also ranked as the second-worst selling asset manager of 2017 and the worst selling of 2016.

According to Morningstar, Axa Investment Managers  had also fallen out of the top 20 list of Europe’s largest mutual fund managers over the past five years.

Standard Life also slipped out of the top 20. But when its numbers were combined with Aberdeen, the fund house it recently merged with, the duo took the 11th position.

Allianz Global Investors and Natixis were new additions compared to five years ago.

Reference

Financial Time, Attracta Mooney, 2018-08-11, “Franklin Templeton Drops Out of European Top 20”