Franklin Templeton pulls plug on Korea fund

‘No longer in the interests of shareholders to keep it open’

Franklin Templeton Investments will close its Korean equity fund, which was previously managed by Mark Mobius before his departure, due to the fund's "relatively small size".

The Templeton Korea fund, which will officially close from 25 May, was launched in 1995 and managed assets of $32m as of 28 February, according to FE. Mark Mobius to retire from Franklin Templeton after over three decades The fund is down -6.9% on a one year basis to 14 March, and is up 10.9% over three years and down 1.1% over five. The FO Equity - Korea sector has returned 5.5%, 25.9% and 23.5% over the same period respectively. The MSCI Korea index, the fund's benchmark, is up 29.3%, 12.6% and 6.2% over one, three and five years respectively. Shareholders of the fund are being g...