Franklin sits among America’s top 15 asset managers, data from Bloomberg Intelligence show. The firm has been snapping up asset managers such as Legg Mason in 2020, quantitative asset management firm O’Shaughnessy Asset Management in 2021 and Lexington Partners, a global manager of secondary private equity and co-investment funds, in the same year. This year, Franklin acquired BNY Alcentra Group Holdings, Inc. from BNY Mellon.
In May, the firm announced it will overhaul four of its index-based ETFs, including moving away from smart beta strategies and focusing on dividend-paying equities. The firm will reposition and rename Franklin LibertyQ Global Dividend ETF, Franklin LibertyQ International Equity Hedged ETF, Franklin LibertyQ Emerging Markets ETF and Franklin LibertyQ Global Equity ETF by August 1.
In June, Franklin launched the Franklin Responsibly Sourced Gold ETF (ticker FGLD) that’s priced at 15 basis points and trades on NYSE Arca to tap into the fast-growing industry of responsible investing.
This year’s broad market selloff, marked by the S&P 500 Index’s decline of 19%, has also hit Franklin’s ETF lineup. Its roughly $1 billion Franklin LibertyQ US Equity ETF (ticker FLQL) is down 15.5% year-to-date while the $708 million Franklin FTSE Japan ETF (FLJP) is trading lower by nearly 20% in the same time frame. The only ETF with a positive return since the beginning of the year is the $3.5 million Franklin FTSE Saudi Arabia ETF (FLSA).
“It’s a stretch but that’s what we aspire to do,” O’Connor said of the $50 billion target. “The areas where we are likely to see most of this growth are in the firm’s passive equity and active fixed income lineups globally.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.