Franklin Templeton suffers big profit drop as investors pull cash from mutual funds

In worst quarterly outflow ever, assets under management at the firm dropped 11% in fiscal fourth quarter, to $771 billion.

Franklin Resources Inc., the manager of the $58 billion Templeton Global Bond Fund, reported a worse-than-expected 44% drop in fiscal fourth-quarter profit as the slump in emerging markets and energy eroded assets and prompted record investor redemptions.
Net income for the three months ended Sept. 30 declined to $358.2 million, or 59 cents a year, from $640.6 million, or $1.02 a share, a year earlier, the San Mateo, Calif.-based company said Thursday in a statement. Analysts had expected earnings of 76 cents a share, according to the average of 16 respondents to a Bloomberg survey.
WORST QUARTERLY OUTFLOWS
Clients pulled a net $28.6 billion during the quarter, the worst quarterly outflow ever for the firm. Assets under management fell to $770.9 billion at the end of September, down 11% from the end of June. Franklin’s biggest funds bet on emerging market currencies and energy, both of which have tumbled in 2015 as investors worry about the strength of the global economy.
(More: Franklin Templeton posts worst fund outflows in decades)
“Their flagship funds have had performance issues and that has hurt sales and increased redemptions,” Michael Kim, an analyst with Sandler O’Neill & Partners in New York, said before earnings were released.
Investors this year have withdrawn $6.6 billion from Templeton Global Bond, whose performance lagged behind 89% of rivals. Fund manager Michael Hasenstab owns bonds denominated in the Mexican peso and the Malaysian ringgit, currencies that have lost ground to the U.S. dollar in 2015.
(More: Franklin Templeton’s Hasenstab says assets are cheap, bets big on emerging markets)
The $79 billion Franklin Income Fund, the firm’s largest mutual fund, fell 3.4% this year, trailing 64% of peers, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Manager Ed Perks had 18% of the fund’s equity assets in energy as of June 30, data from the Franklin website show.
‘DIFFICULT MARKET’
“This is a difficult time in the market, especially for anyone who’s had a meaningful energy exposure,” Mr. Perks told Bloomberg in a July interview. Investors pulled $5.2 billion from the fund in the first nine months of 2015, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The dependence on energy and emerging markets has depressed Franklin’s shares. The stock has fallen 31% this year, the third-worst performance in the 19-member S&P index of custody banks and asset managers.