Mark Mobius, who is credited as a pioneer in emerging-market investing, will step down as the lead manager of one of the oldest developing-nation stock funds after trailing his benchmarks in recent years.
The Templeton Emerging Markets Investment Trust, a 1.9 billion pound ($2.9 billion) fund traded in London and New Zealand, has selected Carlos Hardenberg to take over from Oct. 1, it said in a filing. Mr. Mobius, 78, will support Mr. Hardenberg as a portfolio manager and remain chairman of the Templeton Emerging Markets Group, which oversees $39 billion in assets, it said.
“Mobius is a figurehead in the emerging market investment space,” said Chong Yoon-Chou, investment director at Aberdeen Asset Management in Singapore. “He laid the foundation for many emerging market investment specialists today. What stood out about him was the consistency of using value-driven and long-term investment strategies and his constant search for value.”
Templeton routinely evaluates portfolio managers and “makes changes based on what we believe is in the best interests of our clients,” Mr. Mobius said in the filing.
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“Mark Mobius is to emerging market investing what Colonel Sanders is to fried chicken,” said Peter Douglas, the principal of the Singapore chapter of CAIA Association, a global group on alternative investment education. “He may not have been the most hands-on frontier pioneer, but he is the icon of the industry, and has been the global cheerleader of emerging markets for almost three decades.”
DISAPPOINTING PERFORMANCE
It's natural for Mr. Mobius to hand over to a newer generation, “but there's no doubt he's changed the world of investing during his career,” added Mr. Douglas, who also runs his own Singapore-based research firm GFIA Pte.
While the Templeton Trust delivered outsized gains in early years after Mobius established it in 1989,
its recent performance has slipped. The fund has declined 0.3% annually over the past five years, compared with a gain of 1.9% in its benchmark, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
In the annual report, Peter Smith, chairman of the Templeton trust, acknowledged that the fund's performance was “very disappointing,” while ensuring investors that the board will challenge the “investment model” with the managers at each quarterly meeting.
Rebecca Radosevich, a spokeswoman for Franklin Templeton Investments, declined to comment beyond what the company said in the statement. Phone messages left with Messrs. Mobius and Hardenberg after regular business hours were not immediately returned.
Mr. Hardenberg, who has been with Templeton for 13 years, will relocate to London, according to the statement. Chetan Sehgal, an executive vice president, will continue to serve as senior research analyst, it said.
