Franklin Templeton is poised to swallow three fixed income funds. A regulatory filing revealed that HSBC plans to collapse its HSBC Investor New York Tax-Free Bond Fund into the Franklin New York Intermediate-Term Tax-Free Income Fund, and the filing also confirmed that HSBC will collapse both its HSBC Investor Core Plus Fixed Income Fund and its HSBC Investor Intermediate Duration Fixed Income Fund into the Franklin Total Return Fund.

Spokespeople for Franklin and HSBC could not immediately be reached for comment on the move. The filing revealed only that the HSBC funds' boards of trustees decided that such a move "would be in the best interests of the target funds and their shareholders."

According to Yahoo Finance, HSBC Investor Core Plus Fixed Income holds a total of $56.22 million between its four share classes; HSBC Investor Intermediate Duration Fixed Income holds $12.28 million; and HSBC Investor New York Tax-Free Bond holds $42.56 million.

The funds' shareholders will vote on the reorganization on August 24. If approved, the reorg would convert I shares of the HSBC funds into Advisor shares of the Franklin ones, A and B shares into A shares, and C shares into C shares.

Franklin is clearly hungry for growth. The San Mateo, California-based fund firm has reportedly been in the running for buying AIG's asset management arm and Columbia Management. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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