The NFO opens for subscription on November 7 and closes on November 21.
Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund announced the launch of its open end fund of funds called Franklin India Multi-Asset Solution Fund (FIMAS).
FIMAS will invest in a mix of equity, debt, money market instruments and gold ETFs. According to an FT presentation, since gold has low correlation with both equities and fixed income, gold ETFs will be used to provide diversification.
The fund will actively manage its asset allocation between two equity funds, two debt funds, gold ETF and liquid fund of Franklin Templeton. The equity portion will be invested in Frankiln India Bluechip Fund and/or Franklin India Prima Plus while the debt portion will be invested in Franklin India Short Term Plan and/or Franklin India Income Opportunities Fund. Similarly, for money market and gold exposure, the scheme will invest its corpus in Franklin India Treasury Management Account and domestic Gold ETFs.
In a press release, Harshendu Bindal, President, Franklin Templeton Investments - India said, “We believe that a well-diversified portfolio can provide more flexibility and therefore more opportunities, and in the long run, potentially enhance risk-adjusted returns. When we look at the last 10 year calendar returns for various asset classes, we see that different asset classes outperform over different time periods, depicting that a portfolio requires a mix of equity, debt, gold and cash. We believe that FIMAS simplifies the investment process for investors who currently have to invest in a range of asset classes to achieve their desired asset allocation. FIMAS makes the investment process much easier for investors, on account of its dynamic asset allocation rebalancing feature.”
The scheme will decide the level of exposure in each asset class depending on the broader economic indicators, valuations and sentiment/momentum indicators. Indicators like - The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) composite leading indicators, India Index of Industrial Production, dollar vs developed currencies index and Asian currencies vs dollar index will be considered. Also, the scheme will rebalance its portfolio by taking into account the difference between earnings yields, bond yield and P/E ratio.
“We will look at various economic, valuation and sentiment parameters, as well as more technical indicators such as sentiment and risk forecasts, to make our asset allocation decisions. The scheme acts as a ‘one-stop solution’ for all asset allocation needs,” said Bindal in the press release.
In order to ensure that switching between the schemes would not eat up returns, the fund house will redeem its units on first in first out (FIFO) basis. Also, the fund house has kept the exit load at 1% if redeemed within 3 years from the date of allotment. “The exit load will discourage investors to redeem before three years which will eventually benefit them with good returns along with low tax outgo,” said a senior official from the fund house.
The fund house has back-tested the model and claimed that the fund has outperformed the Crisil Balanced Fund Index in 92% observations in three years and 100% observations in five years.
The minimum application amount will be Rs.5,000. The scheme will be benchmarked against CRISIL Balanced Fund Index. Peeyush Mittal will manage the scheme.
