Franklin Build India Fund NFO Form Download and Review - Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund

Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund has launched a new mutual fund NFO - Franklin Build India Fund, with a bottom-up approach and a top-down lay. The NFO is currently open. This is an open-ended equity mutual fund that will be available for sale from July 10, 2009 to August 8, 2009.

Right click here to download the Franklin Build India Fund NFO form in .PDF format. Choose 'Save target as' and save the form to your desktop. This is a common application form for all Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund schemes.

[This form requires a PDF viewer that can be downloaded for free here. This will take a minute. After the file has been downloaded to your PC, double click on the file name to run it. The PDF viewer will open. View the Franklin Build India Fund NFO form in this and print  Page 3 and Page 4 using any printer.] 

After printing out the form, fill it out, attach your cheque and submit it at any Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund service center. Click here to see a complete list of Franklin Templeton offices across India where you can submit your form. You can even send it to them by courier.

The Franklin Build India Fund will invest primarily in companies that are of importance to the economy to sustain and enhance the economic growth rate. Some of the sectors they have identified for investment include physical and social infrastructure, resources, financial services and agriculture. These are high-growth areas and most of them are a key priority for the government that has had a focus on infrastructure and agriculture since long. Announcements made in the recent budget also indicate that the thrust on infrastructure development will continue for a long time to come and companies in these sectors will be direct benefeciaries of the substantial expenditure ramp up.

There was an infrastructure mutual fund offer from Reliance last month and the Franklin Build India Fund seems to have a similar focus but with a wider scope. This equity mutual fund will follow a bottom up approach, researching into the micro-economic data of individual companies and identifying companies that have the potential to generate returns and create wealth for their shareholders. The to-down lay approach helps them focus on sectors that are a high priority with the government and for which, the investment climate remains favorable.

The minimum investment in The Franklin Build India Fund is Rs.5,000 and in multiples of Re.1 thereafter. This scheme is best suited for those looking at the medium to long term. A holding period of betwen 6 months to 2 years should be the minimum time frame for this.

Franklin Templeton mutual fund has several schemes including equity, hybrid and debt mutual fund schemes. They have a good track record of providing returns to their unit holders. The Franklin India Opportunities-Growth Fund has provided a compounded return of over 20% since the date of its launch in March 2004. Despite the ups and downs over the last one year, in the stock market, this fund has provided a return of 33.54% to the unit holders.

The FT India Balanced-Growth fund has provided a return of 30.22% over the last one year while the average return in the Hybrid - Equity-oriented fund category is 26.92% and the return provided by ICICI Pru Balanced-Growth fund is only 22.81% over the last one year. Since inception, the FT India Balance-Growth fund has provided a return of 14.75% while ICICI Pru Balanced-Growth fund has provided a 12.88% compounded return. This difference of almost 2% would have affected your returns dramatically. If you had invested Rs.12,000 in ICICI Pru Balanced-Growth fund, over a ten year period your investment would be worth Rs.40304.28 today. The same Rs.12,000 invested in FT India Balanced-Growth fund would have been worth Rs.47501.59 today. So just that little edge would have given you Rs.7,000 more on your original Rs.12,000. While past performance of any other scheme from the same AMC is no indication of the future performance, it does establish that Franklin Templeton has provided above average returns in many schemes and inspires confidence.

The Franklin Build India Mutual Fund is an open-ended equity mutual fund. After you have been alloted units in this mutual fund, there is no restriction on selling it. You can sell the units back to Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund at any time at the prevailing NAV. There is no lock-in period. This flexibility, the focus on high-potential sectors and the reputation of Franklin Templeton make this a good pick for medium to long term investment.