US investment management giant Franklin Templeton said the launch of a new range of enhanced indexing funds is part of a push into the UK.
It said the funds aim to fill the gap between passive and active by turning fundamental managers’ quantitative insights into a factor.
Harry Reeves, Franklin Templeton’s head of UK wholesale, said: “This new suite reflects our continued focus on broadening the range of solutions available to UK investors.”
The actively managed Franklin Core Enhanced Equity Index Funds cover UK, Europe ex-UK, US and global equities and are available as sub-funds of the Franklin Templeton Funds (FTF) OEIC range.
The new funds have been developed and will be managed by the Franklin Templeton Investment Solutions team. The firm said the funds are designed to stay close to their benchmarks while seeking incremental outperformance, “serving as cost-efficient core building blocks within diversified portfolios.”
Lisa Wang, Head of EMEA investment strategy at FTIS, said: “The challenge we set ourselves was to utilise our active managers’ proven skills by transforming their qualitative insights into a systematic factor.
“By extracting this ‘conviction’ factor from managers’ research-intensive stock selection, we can add a valuable extra layer of investment insight to an underlying process that remains systematic.”
The range launched this week are available across a range of investment platforms and consists of the following:
• FTF Franklin Core UK Equity Enhanced Index Fund
• FTF Franklin Core Europe ex UK Equity Enhanced Index Fund
• FTF Franklin Core US Equity Enhanced Index Fund
• FTF Franklin Core Global Equity Enhanced Index Fund
Mr Reeves said: “The strategies are designed to complement both traditional index and active approaches. By embedding conviction within a quantitative framework, they can offer a cost-efficient alternative to full active management while retaining a disciplined approach to risk and diversification.”