Franklin Templeton has made some personnel changes to respond to growth in its loan portfolio management area. Chauncey Lufkin, previously senior portfolio manager has been promoted to chief investment officer of Franklin's debt group and Richard D'Addario, previously senior v.p. and portfolio manager has taken Lufkin's spot as senior portfolio manager and director of research. Lufkin did not replace anyone. Both D'Addario and Lufkin report to Chuck Johnson, president. D'Addario said the debt group has been adding additional internal staffers from other areas to expand the fund's operations and investment groups. Calls to Lufkin were not returned by press time.
D'Addario explained the loan retail funds are now roughly $3.2 billion with $2 billion in the floating-rate fund. Franklin has $900 million in two existing collateralized loan obligations and it expects to add roughly $400 million upon completion of its latest CLO, (LMW 3/18). As the loan funds have grown, "marketing, portfolio management, and compliance are too much for one person and it was time to divide up the labor," said D'Addario.
In terms of the portfolio, D'Addario said that right now he is focusing on what investments the fund may want to divest from the portfolio and which new credits to bring in. "We're an income fund and we want to ring the volatility out of the portfolio and stabilize NAV."