Of Greece, in particular, which is half the size of Bavaria, a German state, he said its problems are less a financial than a political matter. In the end, he predicted the political elements of the crisis "will prevail to keep the Euro zone intact."
Boersma expanded on Brugere-Trelat's comments about opportunities in attractively valued stocks in Europe. The Templeton Growth Fund he helms was founded in 1954 by legendary investor John Templeton, who helped build Franklin Templeton into a global powerhouse.
As value investors, Boersma and his group of 37 analysts around the world adhere to a bottom-up strategy. He believes exporters are a large factor in global investing, and attributes their attractiveness to business being done in emerging markets with strong performance.
Among the top companies in his portfolio are Pfizer and Sanofi, a Spanish drug company, in the health-care sector, and Spain's Telefonica in the telecom sector, which derives 40 percent of its earnings from Latin America.
In contrast to Mutual Series and Franklin Funds, which are deep-value investors, Rostom said the Franklin Equity Group looks for stocks with sustainable growth patterns. The Franklin International Growth Fund he helms is three years old with a concentrated portfolio of 40 stocks that are about equally weighted.
Turnover is low and the average holding period is about four years, Rostom said. He said he concentrates on growth investments, looking for good profitability, cash flow and robust balance sheets, in both developed- and emerging-market stocks.
A favorite holding is Mercado Libre, the largest online marketplace in Latin America. The stock has a marketplace similar to eBay, according to Rostom, and a payments system similar to Pay Pal. The founder and driver behind the company is its CEO, who holds 12 percent of the stock, Rostom said.
Notably, all the portfolio managers said they were underweight Japan because of its poor corporate governance and growth prospects.