We have moved the Franklin UK Mid Cap fund from our Established list to our Positive Watch list.

In January 2020, Franklin Templeton announced that Paul Spencer, Portfolio Manager and Research Analyst in the Franklin UK Equity Team, will retire at the end of September 2020.  Mr Spencer was the lead manager of the Franklin UK Mid Cap fund and this role has now been passed to Richard Bullas, who was previously a deputy on the fund alongside fellow team-member, Mark Hall.

The UK Equity Team, led by Colin Morton, is close knit and the culture is highly collaborative, with the sharing of research and ideas at the heart of the research-intensive approach.  Having worked closely with Mr Spencer for many years and with wide-ranging knowledge of the small and mid-cap universe, Mr Bullas is the natural successor as lead manager of the Franklin UK Mid Cap fund.

Although we expect continuity of philosophy and process, we are placing the fund onto our Positive Watch list because, as well as the loss of Mr Spencer’s ongoing insights and specialist mid-cap experience, this change also represents a shift in focus for Mr Bullas.  He continues to be co-lead manager of the Franklin UK Smaller Companies and Franklin UK Managers’ Focus funds (see below).

Additional team changes

As reported in our January bulletin, there are associated team changes with respect to the Franklin UK Managers’ Focus and Franklin UK Smaller Companies funds.  The key change is that Daniel Green has moved into a co-lead manager position on both funds:

Franklin UK Managers’ Focus and Franklin UK Smaller Companies remain on our Recommended list.