California-based Franklin Templeton Investments is to launch four new SICAV (open ended) funds within its Luxembourg-registered investments funds range, designed for several diverse market locations.

The products are the Templeton Asia Smaller Companies Fund; the Templeton Frontier Markets Fund; Franklin World Perspectives Fund and the Franklin Mutual Euroland fund.

The Templeton Asian Smaller Companies Fund invests in companies with a market capitalisation of less than $2 billion (£1.16 billion) in Asia (excluding Japan) or in those companies that profit significantly from Asian economies.  

The Templeton Frontier Markets Fund, meanwhile, invests primarily in companies exposed to frontier markets. This allows investors to access smaller countries that are considered to be at the fledgling stage of development but exhibit the potential to become the emerging markets of the future. 

Compared with markets such as China, India, Brazil and Russia, all of which have a market capitalisation of greater than $1 trillion (£1.75 trillion), frontier markets whose market capitalisations range from less than $10 billion (£5.84 billion) to $100 billion (£58.4 billion), offer tremendous potential for growth.

Frontier economies such as Qatar and Panama are expected to grow considerably in 2008, whilst developed markets such as the UK and Japan are forecast to have much slower growth.  In addition, frontier markets offer low correlation to global markets through exposure to diverse economic themes and attractive companies trading at low price-to-earnings ratios. 

Dr Mark Mobius, executive chairman of Templeton Asset Management will manage both funds.

The Franklin World Perspectives Fund will invest in growth stocks in developed, emerging and frontier markets across the whole market capitalisation spectrum. It will aim to outperform the MSCI All Country World Plus Frontier Markets Index. 

The fund combines a bottom-up approach to individual security selection with a strategic country allocation process.  Lead portfolio manager Stephen Dover, will use top-down analysis combined with input from local portfolio managers to determine regional allocations.  Local asset managers based in Calgary, Chennai, Dubai, Frankfurt, San Mateo, Sao Paulo, Seoul and Tokyo will be free to manage their respective sub-portfolios. 

The Franklin Mutual Euroland Fund aims to achieve long-term capital appreciation by investing in securities of companies incorporated or primarily active in the eurozone.  Lead portfolio manager Philippe Brugère-Trélat, aims to provide investors with excellent risk-adjusted returns over the longer term by focusing on undervalued equities, distressed securities and arbitrage opportunities. 

Jamie Hammond, senior director of global advisory services at Templeton said: “We are now seeking FSA approval to distribute these new funds in the UK.  The Templeton Asian Smaller Companies Fund, Templeton Frontier Markets Fund and the Franklin World Perspectives Fund are diversified strategies, which will have a sterling-priced distributor status share class.”