Franklin Templeton Plans New ETFs

Franklin Templeton has filed for three actively managed ETFs that cover different slices of the fixed-income space. The three funds are slated to list on Cboe Global Markets, the parent company of ETF.com. They include:

• Franklin Liberty High Yield Corporate ETF (FLHY)
• Franklin Liberty International Aggregate Bond ETF (FLIA)
• Franklin Liberty Senior Loan ETF (FLBL)

FLHY will invest primarily in high-yield corporate debt from around the world of any denomination, maturity or duration. Franklin will rely on a team of analysts to inform its bottom-up approach to managing the portfolio.

FLIA will invest in fixed- and floating-rate bonds from the full range of governmental and corporate issuers representing developed markets other than the U.S. The fund can purchase securities of any credit quality, including those in default, but it will primarily invest in investment-grade debt, with no more than 20% of the portfolio invested in junk bonds.

FLBL will invest mainly in income-producing senior floating interest rate corporate loans that are either provided to or by U.S. companies, or non-U.S. companies or their U.S. subsidiaries—though non-U.S. companies are limited to a 25% weighting in the portfolio. Senior loan holders are prioritized over other types of creditors in the event of a credit event.

The trio of ETFs, when they launch, will round out Franklin’s bond ETF lineup, which already includes a variety of actively managed fixed-income funds covering short-duration U.S. government debt, municipal bonds and the investment-grade corporate debt.

The filing did not include expense ratios for the three funds.

Contact Heather Bell at [email protected]