Funds News
- Franklin to manage ICBC QDII fund
Date: 27-Nov-2007 Sources: (Shenzhen Daily)
FRANKLIN Templeton said yesterday it had been picked by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd. (ICBC) to manage a US$475 million overseas-invested fund sold by China's top bank to its local clients.
The deal makes the unit of Franklin Resources Inc. the latest global asset manager to win business as a result of China's Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor (QDII) program, which lets Chinese investors put money to work in foreign markets.
The California-based company, one of the largest publicly traded U.S. asset managers, said it would manage the underlying investments in ICBC's Oriental Pearl III-Prosperity Fund. ICBC raised US$475 million with the launch of the fund.
Oriental Pearl is a fund-of-funds vehicle investing in global fixed-income and equity funds managed by Franklin. These include its Templeton Asian Growth Fund, Templeton BRIC Fund and Templeton Global Total Return Fund.
A growing number of domestic financial firms have won nod to launch funds that invest abroad under the country's landmark QDII program, which was introduced in April 2006.
In addition to letting domestic residents diversify their investments, the program will help relieve some upward pressure on the yuan by promoting capital outflows.
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