An investor association has written to the stock market regulator seeking offline voting options to decide on the winding up of six schemes of Franklin Templeton Asset Management (India). Voting is set to happen electronically between December 26th to December 28th. This is to be followed by a virtual meeting through video conferencing. Postal ballots would help senior citizens and others who are not as conversant with electronic means, according to the letter that Midas Touch Investors Association sent to the regulator dated December 8th. The paper trail makes the process more transparent suggested the note. “…consent be obtained through post, which could be identified and subsequently verified easily, to set doubts, if any, at rest. In addition, voting through electronic medium be made optional,” said a statement from association president Virendra Jain.
Synopsis
Many unitholders are wondering whether they should say yes or no. Investors also want to know what will be the outcome in both the cases. The e-voting is scheduled to take place from December 26 to 28.
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Nearly eight months after it shut six debt mutual fund schemes, Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund is finally holding the e-voting to obtain the consent of investors to wind up six of its debt schemes. SEBI has appointed Taruvai Subayya Krishnamurthy, the former chief election commissioner of India as the observer for e-voting. Many unitholders are wondering whether they should say yes or no. Investors also want to know what will be the outcome in both the cases. The e-voting window is currently open and will end at 6 pm on December 28.
Franklin Templeton unitholders vote: What should investors do?
Investors in Franklin Templeton’s schemes will vote on whether or not to wind-up schemes December 24, 2020 / 08:59 AM IST
Eight months after Franklin Templeton mutual fund’s (FT MF) closed six of its debt schemes, and after the subsequent court battles, its unitholders will now vote and decide if these schemes should be wound-up or not.
While the legal question on whether approval from unitholders is mandatory for winding-up a scheme is being examined by the Supreme Court (SC), the fund house will seek consent from unitholders as per the directions of the Karnataka High Court.
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The Chennai Financial Markets and Accountability (CFMA), an investor group, has asked investors of Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund (FTMF) to vote against the proposal by Franklin Templeton Trustee Services Pvt Ltd (Trustee) to wind up six debt schemes.
In its bulletin, CFMA says, We have consistently felt that FTMF took a unilateral decision to wind up six schemes to avert inevitable default and consequent regulatory actions against the fund managers and trustees. FTMF has front-ended the lie of COVID-19 excuse to conceal their bad, illegal, improper and risky investments made by their fund managers, whereas how come the Covid-19 reason has not been the case with any other scheme of FTMF or any other mutual fund?
Synopsis
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I want to redeem my investments in Franklin India Smaller Companies Fund. Will it be possible to redeem my investments?
-Rinesh Yadav
It seems, you are confused about the ongoing voting process on six debt schemes of Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund. The vote seeking investor consent to shut only six debt schemes that Franklin had shut on April 23, citing challenging conditions in the bond market. After court cases, finally the fund house is in the process of obtaining investors consent to shut the schemes. The schemes are: Franklin India Low Duration Fund, Franklin India Dynamic Accrual Fund, Franklin India Credit Risk Fund, Franklin India Short Term Income Plan, Franklin India Ultra Short Bond Fund, and Franklin India Income Opportunities Fund.