Franklin Templeton unitholders to receive Rs 983.81 crore under their six shut schemes

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Franklin Templeton has announced that all eligible mutual fund unitholders of its now-terminated six debt schemes will receive Rs 983.81 crore under the eighth payout tranche.

The distribution process will be led by the court-appointed liquidator SBI Funds Management, said a Franklin Templeton spokesperson.

The spokesperson also confirmed that the payout will start from December 14.  Post this payout, the schemes would have returned Rs 26,098.19 crores to unitholders amounting to 103.50% of the Assets Under Management (AUM ) as of April 23, 2020.

The fund house had to bring down shutters on these schemes due to lack of liquidity in the bond market and severe redemption pressures.

The schemes in concern, namely Franklin India Low Duration, Dynamic Accrual, Credit Risk, Short Term Income Plan, Ultra Short Bond Fund, and Income Opportunities Fund, together had an estimated AUM corpus of over Rs 25,000 crore.

Prior to this payout, a total of Rs 25,114.39 crores had already been distributed across six schemes under winding up. The investors received Rs 9,122 crore under the first tranche in February, Rs 2,962 crore in April, Rs 2,489 crore in May, Rs 3,205 crore in June,  Rs 3,303 crore in July and Rs 2,918 crore in September. The last payout of Rs 1,115 crore was initiated in November.

The plan to monetise and apportion the proceeds was approved by Supreme Court in March. Provisions for repayment via cheque/DD have also been provided, in a situation where the unitholder’s account is not suited for electronic payment.