Franklin Templeton to launch equity income fund

New Delhi, Mar 20: Franklin Templeton Investments (India), one of the largest mutual fund houses in the country, today (Mar 20, 2006) announced its new open and diversified equity fund.

Templeton India Equity Income Fund (TIEIF) seeks to provide a combination of long-term capital appreciation and regular income investing primarily in stocks (domestic and overseas) that have current or potential attractive dividend yield.

The New Fund Offer period at Rs 10 per unit (plus applicable load) will be from March 22, to April 20, and the fund will open for ongoing purchase/redemption from May 19.

''TIEIF through its focus on dividend yields and exposure to international stocks helps investors capture the long term potential of corporate India and also has the ability to protect their downside relatively better,'' Templeton Equity Director, Research, Chetan Sehgal said.

The fund will try to take advantage of the recently proposed overseas investment norms for MFs, he added.

Franklin Templeton has over Rs 17,996 crore of assets under management and an investor base of over 13,00,000 (as of February 28, 2006).

UNI