Franklin Templeton MF receives interest of Rs 103 cr from Vodafone Idea

Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund on Sunday said it has received an interest payment of about Rs 103 crore from Vodafone Idea Ltd, which will be distributed among investors in proportion to their holdings in the plans of the segregated portfolios.

There are six schemes -- Franklin India Ultra Short Bond Fund, Franklin India Low Duration, Franklin India Short Term Income Plan, Franklin India Credit Risk Fund, Franklin India Dynamic Accrual Fund, and Franklin India Income Opportunities Fund -- which had made investments in Vodafone Idea.

Franklin Templeton MF side-pocketed its exposure in the telecom player and from January 24, various securities issued by Vodafone Idea in the schemes were segregated from the total portfolio.

Creation of segregated portfolios is a mechanism to separate distressed, illiquid, and hard-to-value assets from other more liquid assets in a portfolio.

"Interest payment of Rs 102.71 crore was received from Vodafone Idea Ltd on June 12, 2020," the fund house said in a statement.

This amount shall be distributed to investors in proportion to their holdings in the plans of the segregated portfolio, it added.

"The payout shall be processed by extinguishing proportionate units in the plans of the segregated portfolio of respective schemes. After the payment, the number of units outstanding in the investor account under said segregated portfolio of the scheme would fall to the extent of payout and statutory levy (if applicable)," the fund house said.

For units held in physical or statement of account mode, the partial payment of the outstanding unitholding as on June 12 will be extinguished and will be distributed to unitholders by June 17.

In January, Franklin Templeton, which had an exposure of over Rs 2,000 crore to Vodafone Idea in six of its schemes, had marked down its investment in the securities issued by the telecom player to zero.

The fund house had markdown the schemes after the Supreme Court rejected the telecom player's review plea related to over Rs 40,000 crore in adjusted gross revenue (AGR)-related dues to the government.