The FTIF Franklin K2 Long Short Credit Fund is set to launch on 16 December and will focus on investments in long and short credit, structured credit and emerging market fixed income.
The managers will be selected by a team of four comprising David Saunders, founding managing director, Rob Christian, senior managing director and Jeff Schmidt, managing director of portfolio construction, along with Charmaine Chin, managing director at K2 Advisors.
A former trader at Tucker Anthony, David Saunders founded K2 advisors in 1994 and merged his firm with Franklin Templeton in 2012.
He said he hoped investors would view the new fund as an alternative way to diversify their portfolios and added: “We believe that investors may be open to alternatives as a way to diversify their portfolios outside of traditional fixed income investment options.”
The latest fund is a sub-fund of FTIF’s Luxembourg-registered SICAV range and is the third liquid alternatives fund launched in the FTIF range since 2012 when its partnership with K2 Advisors began.
The second fund was launched only last month, and was titled the Franklin K2 Global Macro Opportunities Fund.
The fund will be publicly launched first in Luxembourg on 16th December and thereafter registered with the FCA for UK investors.
