Franklin Templeton Investments opens Goa branch

\ Panaji, Oct 27 (PTI) Franklin Templeton Investments, one\of the largest fund houses in the country, today expanded its\footprint to Goa by opening a branch here.\ \\"With over 65 years of experience in global investing,\Franklin Templeton Investments has an extensive international\presence and breadth of product line with offices in 35\countries, supported by over 650 investment professionals.\ \\"It has USD 733.30 billion (Rs 50 lakh crore) assets under\management with nearly 2.5 crore investor accounts\world-wide,\\" Peshotan Dastoor, National Sales Director,\Franklin Templeton India, told reporters here.\ He said in India, Franklin Templeton has emerged as one of\the largest and most trusted fund houses, since its entry in\1996.\ The firm has average assets under management of close to\Rs 73,666 crore as of September 2016 with over 28 lakh mutual\fund folios with an asset mix of 53 per cent in equity funds\and 47 per cent in debt funds.\ \\"Four of the funds have completed over 20 years since\inception, that is Franklin India Bluechip Fund, Franklin\India Prima Fund, Franklin India Prima Plus and Templeton\India Growth Fund while 20 of the funds have a vintage of more\than 10 years,\\" he said.\ Dastoor said the Indian mutual fund industry has grown by\over 5 times from Rs 2.91 lakh cr in September 2006 toearly Rs 16 lakh crore in September 2016 at an annualised\growth rate of 18 per cent.\ \\"Going forward, a favourable policy framework can help the\industry in improving this growth, as rising income levels in\states like such as Goa will ensure that investors\increasingly start looking towards professional fund managers\to take care of their investments.\ \\"Goa, with an aggregated AUM of over Rs 9,000 crore spread\across four key centres, namely Panaji, Margao, Vasco and\Mapusa would occupy the eleventh place in AMFIÂ’s city wise\AUM tally as at June 2016.\ \\"The city has strong potential of growth in new investors,\systematic investment plans and assets under management. The\Franklin Templeton Goa branch will help service the needs of\distributors and customers in the state,\\" Dastoor commented.\ Mutual funds offer both variety and convenience, besides\various other advantages, he said.\ \\"Key advantages are diversification across asset classes,\professional investment expertise, economies of scale, tax\efficiencies and lower ticket size (minimum investment of Rs\500 per month), among others. Even though mutual funds do not\offer assured returns, they have the potential to comfortably\beat inflation over the long run,\\" he said. PTI RPS DK\ABM\SDM\