Veteran investor Mark Mobius to step back from eponymous asset manager

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Mark Mobius, one of the founders of emerging markets investing, is to step down from his eponymous firm after a 40-year career in asset management.

Mobius, 87, will leave Mobius Capital Partners in the coming months, the investment firm he co-founded in 2018, according to a statement to the London Stock Exchange on Friday.

He is one of the industry’s most prominent emerging market fund managers, having started one of the first funds dedicated to emerging markets more than 30 years ago.

The veteran investor also bought bargains in Asia and Russia after financial crises shook their markets in the late 1990s.

Mobius spent the bulk of his career at Franklin Templeton, where he launched one of the world’s first funds dedicated to growth economies in 1987, and grew the Templeton Emerging Markets Group’s investments in the sector from $100mn to $40bn during his tenure.

After he retired from Franklin Templeton in 2018, he founded Mobius Capital Partners with Carlos Hardenberg and Greg Konieczny, who also worked with him at Franklin Templeton. The company runs a $42mn fund, and a £164mn investment trust both focusing on emerging markets.

The fund, which invests primarily in Taiwan, India, South Korea and Brazil, has returned 26.9 per cent since it was founded, compared with the 11.5 per cent return from MSCI’s EM Midcap index.

Hardenberg, who has worked with Mobius for 23 years, said: “Our journey over the past five years has been marked by progress . . . we would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to Mark for his exceptional contributions to emerging market investing over his long career.”

Mobius said: “As a shareholder of the Mobius Investment Trust, I will be following the company’s progress closely and will continue to be available to the team and the board.”

Maria Luisa Cicognani, chair of the Mobius Investment Trust, said: “We would like to express our immense gratitude to [Mark] for his advice and expertise over the years. We look forward to continuing to work with Mark, drawing on his support and vast knowledge of emerging markets.”

Hardenberg told the Financial Times that new partners in the firm will be announced in due course. “[Mark’s departure] is amicable and he will continue to be very active,” he said.

“We need to ensure that we have a robust structure in place which will support us in the years to come.”