Franklin Templeton Canada Repositions Two of its ETFs to Track Solactive GBS Indices – Emerging and Developed Markets
When looking to weather the volatile environment in financial markets, one of the main strategies used by investors is portfolio diversification. One possibility is investing in different countries to balance the outcome of difficult economic situations that may come, as a decline in one country’s economic conditions can be compensated by upward trends in another region. On the one hand, developed markets generally offer less risk of political or economic instability as well as more accounting reliability. On the other hand, having assets invested in emerging markets can mean that, despite the greater risks, one may benefit from a high and fast growth potential. Solactive is pleased to announce that Franklin Templeton Canada has repositioned two of its existing ETFs, and will now be tracking Solactive GBS indices, each one focusing on one of these groups of countries. Available to Canadian investors, the Franklin Emerging Markets Equity Index ETF (FLEM) will now seek to replicate the performance of the Solactive GBS Emerging Markets Large & Mid Cap CAD Index-NR, while the Franklin International Equity Index ETF (FLUR) will now seek to replicate the performance of the Solactive GBS Developed Markets ex North America Large & Mid Cap CAD Index-NR.
Both the Solactive GBS Emerging Markets Large & Mid Cap CAD Index-NR and the Solactive GBS Developed Markets ex North America Large & Mid Cap CAD Index-NR are part of the Solactive Global Benchmark Series, which aim to track various segments of the global stock market and are selected and weighted according to Free Float Market Capitalization. They intend to track the performance of the large and mid-cap segment covering approximately the largest 85% of the free-float market capitalization, the first one being in Emerging Markets and the latter, in Developed Markets excluding North America.
Timo Pfeiffer, Chief Markets Officer at Solactive, commented: “Both developed markets and emerging markets have their rightful place in investor’s portfolios and the repositioning of these ETFs to track Solactive GBS indices offers access to them, aimed at diversifying portfolio allocation. We are very glad about the continued engagement with Franklin Templeton, expanding this opportunity to Canadian investors and are looking forward to jointly enabling investors to engage with quality benchmark offerings.”
Bobby Eng, Senior Vice President, Head of Platform & Institutional ETF Distribution at Franklin Templeton Canada said: “Franklin Templeton is pleased to expand its suite of low-cost country and regional passive ETFs by repositioning two of our existing ETFs, FLUR and FLEM. These two ETFs can complement a Canadian portfolio by providing exposure to developed and emerging markets through the Solactive GBS Developed Markets ex North America Large & Mid Cap CAD Index-NR and the Solactive GBS Emerging Markets Large & Mid Cap CAD Index-NR, respectively. In an increasingly competitive and cost-conscious market, these solutions are cost-effective ETFs at a management fee of 9bps and 15bps, respectively.”