The U.S. versions of the Templeton Global Bond Fund and the Templeton Global Total Return Fund (TGTRX), overseen by Michael Hasenstab, increased holdings of Ukrainian international dollar debt by $252 million in face value to about $3.8 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg through Dec. 31. Along with their European counterparts, the funds hold about $6.4 billion, more than a third of the country’s external dollar bonds, their most recent filings show.

Ukrainian securities suffered the worst selloff on record yesterday as concern the country is plunging into civil war escalated after clashes between police and anti-government activists killed at least 25 people. The yield on the government’s $1 billion of notes maturing in June increased 19 percentage points to 42 percent, an all-time high yesterday.

“Ukraine is going to go down this darker route, and from a foreign bondholders perspective, this is the point you need to see the sources of foreign financial support maintain themselves,” Michael Roche, an emerging-markets strategist at Seaport Group LLC, said in a telephone interview from New York.

‘Contrarian Approach’

Franklin’s fourth-quarter increase adds to the $1.4 billion bet on Ukraine the asset manager made in third quarter, Bloomberg data show. The Templeton Global Bond (TEMGINI) Fund added $215 million of Ukraine’s 9.25 percent notes due 2017 in the three months through December, boosting holdings of the securities to $690 million in face value.

The $69 billion fund has returned 8.24 percent annually over the past decade, ranking in the top 1 percentile among its peers, according to data compiled by Morningstar Inc. The fund has lost 0.52 percent over the past 12 months.

Hasenstab, who oversees Franklin’s $190 billion global bond group, was named the Top Global Bond Fund Manager in 2010 by Bloomberg Markets magazine.

Stacey Johnston Coleman, a spokeswoman at Franklin Templeton, declined to comment on the fund’s Ukrainian bonds holdings. The Global Bond group “often takes a contrarian approach to investing” and can buy and hold “investments that are out of favor,” she said by e-mail yesterday from San Mateo, California.

To contact the reporter on this story: Boris Korby in New York at bkorby1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Brendan Walsh at bwalsh8@bloomberg.net

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-19/franklin-templeton-lifts-ukraine-bet-by-over-250-million.html

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