Franklin Templeton announces dates for e-voting: Things you need to know

Franklin Templeton is going to conduct the e-voting process for winding up the six debt mutual fund schemes. The company can start monetising the assets and begin the winding-up process after receiving approval from the investors.

The trustees of Franklin Templeton have partnered with K Fintech to conduct the electronic voting process, and unitholders meet. The electronic voting process will take place on June 9, 2020 – June 11, 2020. Unitholders meet will be held on June 12, 2020. The meeting will be held via videoconferencing, and the unitholders can attend it from their home.

Login credentials for the electronic voting process, and the link for electronic voting portal and unitholders meet, will be sent to the registered email ID and mobile number of the investors. The login credentials are unique for each scheme that the investor has invested in. The last date of registration is June 8, 2020. If an investor is unable to cast his/her vote during the electronic voting process, then they can cast their vote during the meeting for that respective scheme on June 12.

e-voting process

Investors need to log in with the login credentials that they have received on their registered email id/mobile number. The user id is unique for every scheme that the investor has invested in. Therefore, if the investor has invested in more than one scheme, they would receive a separate email/SMS with a different login id and password for each scheme. Each login id and password entitle a unitholder to only “one vote” for that scheme.

Investors will get two choices – Yes or No. On selecting ‘Yes’, two sub-options will open-up.

• In the first option, investors can authorise Trustee to monetize their assets, assisted by an AMC, and Kotak Mahindra Bank as an independent advisor.
• In the second option, investors can authorise Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP to monetize their assets, assisted by an AMC, and Kotak as an independent advisor.

If the investors don’t want to authorise the liquidation of assets, they can select ‘No’. In that case, the Trustee will propose other options to the investors to seek their authorisation, which may result in a delay in monetizing the assets. The company has clarified that voting ‘No’ will not change the winding-up status of the schemes. The final results will be based on the simple majority of votes cast.

Update (08/06/2020) – Franklin Templeton has suspended the E-voting scheduled for 9 – 11 June 2020 and Unitholder’s Meeting on 12 June 2020, till further communication.

Disclaimer: Mutual Fund Investments are subject to market risk. Please read the scheme related documents carefully and consult your financial advisor before making any kind of investment.