John Templeton is no more
John Templeton, the renowned investor and philanthropist has passed away due to pneumonia. He was 95.
In a celebrated career, he became one of the world’s richest men, gave up his American citizenship in the ’60s, moved to the Bahamas, and was knighted by the Queen of England.
In 1939, just as World War II began, he borrowed $10,000 and bought 100 shares each in 104 companies that were selling at $1 a share or less, including 34 in bankruptcy. A few years later, he made large profits on 100 of the companies, holding each for an average of four years. Only four of them turned out to be duds.
In 1940, he bought a small investment firm that became Templeton, Dubbrow and Vance, before establishing the Templeton Growth Fund in 1954. Since it’s inception, the fund has returned 13.5% a year on average, meaning a $10,000 investment would be valued at about $8.5 million as of March 31, including reinvested dividends and capital-gains distributions.
He sold the Templeton family of funds to Franklin in 1992, which has managers such as Mark Mobius, now the Managing Director of Templeton Investments and guru of emerging markets.
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