A setback in Ukraine for Franklin Templeton’s star fund manager Michael Hasenstab hasn’t dimmed his appetite for bold bets in markets shunned by others as he boosts exposure to some of this year’s worst-performing emerging markets.
For a decade, 41-year old Hasenstab has topped fund performance tables, outflanking rivals with outsize investments in unloved markets such as Hungary and Ireland, buying bonds cheap and cashing in as their governments dodged default.
But in Ukraine, where Templeton sank around $6.5 billion from 2011 — owning about 40 percent of outstanding bonds at one time — he wasn’t so lucky.
