Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund's Shut Schemes Receive Rs 3,275 Crore Since Closure

Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund on Monday said its six shut schemes have received Rs 3,275 crore from maturities, pre-payments and coupon payments since closing down in April.

The six schemes were: Franklin India Ultra Short Bond Fund, Franklin India Low Duration, Franklin India Short Term Income Plan, Franklin India Credit Risk Fund, Franklin India Dynamic Accrual Fund and Franklin India Income Opportunities Fund.

"From June 16, 2020 to June 30, 2020, the schemes have received an additional Rs 1,311 crore from maturities, pre-payments and coupon payments. This takes the total amount received since April 24, 2020 to Rs 3,275 crore," the fund house president Sanjay Sapre said in a letter to investors.

He further said the amount has been received without the ability to efficiently monetise assets and the schemes will endeavour to accelerate monetisation post the successful completion of the e-voting exercise and the unitholder meets.

Franklin Templeton shut six debt mutual fund schemes on April 23, citing redemption pressure and lack of liquidity in the bond market.

With regard to concerns over decline in net asset value (NAV) of some of the funds, Sapre said this is the result of a maturity date reset for the securities of Edelweiss Rural & Corporate Services Limited (ERCSL).

"The impact on the NAV is due to valuation provided by the valuation agencies due to reset of maturity date to the next rate reset date (June 30, 2022)," he said.

Independent valuation agencies typically value these interest rate reset securities considering the next interest rate reset date as the maturity date, Sapre said, adding that Franklin Templeton is continuously monitoring the developments in this regard and engaging with the issuer for early repayments.

He also said that winding-up of a scheme does not mean there has been any kind of write-off of investments made by the schemes.

Last week, the mutual fund house said it received a total of Rs 1,252.44 crore from Vodafone Idea which will be distributed to unitholders of the segregated portfolio.