Mobius reduces number of stocks in EM funds

Templeton’s Mark Mobius has cut the number of holdings in his emerging markets portfolios in a bid to improve performance.

In an interview with Reuters, the emerging markets guru admitted the group’s wider emerging market funds have not performed as well as their Asian portfolios, prompting him to focus on a smaller number of stocks.

While the $15.5bn Templeton Asian Growth fund has returned over five-fold in the past decade, the more diverse $1.2bn Templeton Emerging Markets fund ranks just 103 out of 236 funds over 10 years for total returns, according to Lipper.

“One of the changes has been our concentration. We have concentrated the portfolios a lot more than previously,” Mobius, executive chairman of the Templeton Emerging Markets Group, said.

“In the past the funds were big, and we had to be diversified among many different companies. With the increasing liquidity we have now been able to focus more on what we think are the best value companies.”