Equity

Franklin Equity Group

The Franklin Equity Group brings together more than six decades of investment experience offering in-depth expertise in managing growth, value and hybrid/balanced equity strategies that cover global, regional and sector specialties. We believe that attractive risk-adjusted returns can be achieved over time by using a team-oriented collaborative approach and disciplined, bottom-up fundamental research.

Growth

Our goal of investing in high-quality companies with the potential for long-term sustainable growth can provide significant opportunities for investors. We focus on companies across the full global opportunity set that meet our criteria of:

1. Growth. Focus on companies with the potential to produce sustainable earnings and cash flow growth.
2. Quality. Seek high-quality companies with strong management teams and financial strength.
3. Valuation. Assess whether the growth opportunity is already reflected in the stock price.

Value

Our diverse set of US Value strategies focus on long-term capital appreciation or total return, using several distinct investment approaches:

1. Dividend Growth. Focus on companies that have demonstrated a long-term commitment to increasing dividends.
2. Low Price-to-Book. Focus on companies representing “deep value” opportunities for longer-term capital growth.
3. Traditional Value. Focus on companies having some combination of 1) stock prices that are low relative to current, historical, or future earnings; 2) recent sharp price declines, but potential for good long-term earnings prospects; 3) and valuable intangibles not reflected in the stock price.

Hybrid/Balanced

By combining the investment philosophies and expertise of both Franklin Equity Group and Franklin Templeton Fixed Income Group^®, our hybrid/balanced strategies provide an opportunity to participate in the growth potential of the equities market while also seeking current income and reduced short-term volatility.

Franklin Mutual Series

At Franklin Mutual Series, our focus is on recognizing value that most other investors might miss. We believe that despite short-term market fluctuations, cash flow, revenue and the intrinsic value of companies ultimately drive stock prices in the long run. Our goal is to deliver solid, risk-adjusted returns, over the long-term.

Since 1949, Franklin Mutual Series' pursuit of value has been the underlying force driving our strategy.

1. Opportunistic Value Investors - Our core investments are in undervalued stocks with viable catalysts that we believe will change the way the market views their true worth, thus unlocking value for our shareholders. Through bottom-up research, we seek to find value wherever it hides. This approach allows us to find opportunities throughout all parts of the business cycle.
2. Think and Act Like Company Owners - We aim to be diligent in our analysis and disciplined in our purchases so that we only buy securities trading at a significant discount to what we think they are intrinsically worth. Additionally, we have a responsibility to our shareholders and will be activist investors if their interests need to be protected.
3. Strive To Reduce Risk - Undervalued stocks are by definition discounted, which we believe reduces risk. In addition, our select investments in distressed securities and merger arbitrage, both natural extensions of our value strategy, tend to be affected less by broad market movements than by the specifics surrounding each particular situation.

Templeton

Templeton is a pioneer in managing global/international and emerging markets equities, leveraging its legacy of one culture, one philosophy, and one process for the benefit of investors since 1940. We believe independent thinking, discipline, and patience are essential to capturing long-term opportunity. To this end, the entire Templeton organization is built around conducting deep, on-the-ground research and using it to deliver distinct global investment insights.

Templeton Global Equity Group

Templeton has consistently applied its disciplined, value-driven approach to global and international markets investing. All investment decisions are guided by three core tenets:

• Value. We seek companies that we believe are trading at a discount to what our research indicates the company may be worth.
• Patience. Security prices can fluctuate more widely than underlying security values. In our opinion, markets should recognize and correct these mispricings over time, and we maintain the discipline to look beyond the market's short-term noise.
• Bottom-Up. We identify value through rigorous fundamental analysis of a company's business to determine what we consider its economic worth based on projected future earnings, cash flow, or asset value potential.

Templeton Emerging Markets Group

Following Templeton Global Equity Group's bottom-up, long-term, value-oriented investment philosophy, our emerging markets team focuses on investment opportunities in emerging and frontier markets, where we seek to capitalize on the economic growth potential of these regions.