Franklin Templeton has launched the FTGF Putnam Global Research fund, marking the firm’s next steps to broaden out Putnam Investments’ capabilities to UK investors.
The fund, which is a sub-fund of the Ireland-domiciled Franklin Templeton Global Funds (FTGF) range, aims to provide returns through high-conviction stock ideas across global equity markets – chiefly companies where earnings expectations are deemed to be “materially different” from market consensus.
Its portfolio is divided into 11 different investment sleeves, with managers and analysts from Putnam’s research team looking after each. It will adopt a sector and region-neutral approach relative to the MSCI World index, and is able to invest in both growth and value stocks over a multi-year time horizon.
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Overall, the portfolio – which will comprise 150-200 stocks – will be co-managed by Boston-based portfolio managers Kate Lakin, Matt LaPlant and Vivek Gandhi, as well as London-based David Morgan.
Franklin Templeton acquired US specialist investment manager Putnam Investments in 2024. The firm expanded access to the firm’s US strategies to UK and oversees investors last year.
Harry Reeves, head of UK wholesale at Franklin Templeton, said: “We’ve seen strong momentum for Putnam Investments in the UK, with clients responding well to its deep fundamental research and disciplined approach to stock selection.
“What particularly resonates is the consistency of the approach and Putnam’s philosophy of being ‘consistently good, not occasionally great’.
“The success of the US research strategy has given us a strong base to build from, and the Global Research fund is a natural next step, giving UK investors access to Putnam’s best ideas across global equity markets.”
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Co-portfolio manager of the fund Lakin added that “fundamental bottom-up research is at the heart of everything we do”.
“We are excited to build upon the strength of our successful US research strategy by including our non-US expertise in a global portfolio for European investors.
“The fund is designed for investors seeking global equity exposure that aims to generate excess returns through high-conviction stock selection, while controlling factor exposures to drive performance from idiosyncratic risk.”