Conqueror who believed in God and Mammaon
Wednesday, 16 July 2008
Julie Earle-Levine and Kate Burgess
SIR John Marks Templeton, who has died at the age of 95 in Nassau, conquered Wall Street to become one of the world's greatest investors and philanthropists.
Sir John, who was one of the first people to set up a mutual fund shop in New York 65 years ago, had a simple philosophy: If 90 per cent of people are selling something it is probably undervalued; look in countries where other people aren't looking; and do the opposite of others.
Today there are tens of thousands of listed mutual funds in the US, many of which claim to follow his philosophy of picking good-value stocks and investing in the long term. It is a style still adhered to by Franklin Templeton Investments, whose roots lie in the fund Sir John founded in 1954.
That fund - the Templeton Growth fund - turned in annualised returns of 15 per cent a year until Sir John's retirement in 1992, when he sold his fund management firm to the Franklin Group for about $440m. He made his name for being one of the earliest global fund managers focusing on investing in stocks outside the US and was an early investor in emerging markets and in Japan in the early 1960s.
For 50 years Sir John - who was a prolific writer - has become a byword for his pithy aphorisms and investment adages. He is credited with warning that the words "it's different this time" were the most expensive in the English language. One of his pithiest sayings was: "An investor who has all the answers doesn't even understand the questions."
However, he is perhaps best known for saying: "Bull markets are born on pessimism, grown on scepticism, mature on optimism and die on euphoria. The time of maximum pessimism is the best time to buy, and the time of maximum optimism is the best time to sell."
He famously bought equities the day after the 1987 stock market crash. But 50 years before he was establishing a reputation for shrewd judgment. In 1939 as the second world war began he bought shares in Missouri Pacific Railway - because in any big war, he said, railways become prosperous.
Obituary
Sir John Marks Templeton
Inventor, Philanthropist
John Marks Templeton grew up as a presbyterian in a small farming town in Tennessee. His father was a farmer and a self-educated lawyer while his mother's interest in spirituality and healing was a strong influence. He thought of becoming a missionary but went to Yale instead. He graduated in 1934 and went on to become a Rhodes Scholar in Oxford where 50 years later, his endowment founded the Templeton College of business and management.
On leaving Oxford, he travelled before returning to the US to buy 100 shares of all stocks under $1 that had been hit by the Depression. The returns on his investments helped launch his career on Wall Street in 1937.
Throughout Sir John's life he worked to marry his interest in investment with his religious convictions. Sir John was a committed Christian and in 1972 established the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. Sir John brought together a panel of nine judges, with at least one judge from each of the five leading religions, to recognise exemplary achievement in work related to life's spiritual dimension.
He also set up the John Templeton Foundation in 1987, which hands out about $70m in annual grants to study the links between science and religion.
Sir John became a British citizen in 1962 - largely, his friends said, so he could give his money away in the Bahamas, where he lived, the UK and the US. It was a practicality, not a tax issue as has been suggested, they said.
In 1987 he was knighted for his philanthropic efforts.
Sir John continued to be an active investor and philanthropist well into his 90s, managing the John Templeton Foundation's $250m endowment as well as his own personal wealth, estimated at more than $700m.
He could be very charitable. He said the world should love everyone, even Saddam Hussein. "I try to fill my mind with what is going to be the best for humanity in the long run and with unlimited love. Saddam Hussein? Yes, I love him too."
"People who appear most evil usually don't intend to do evil," he told the FT in 2003. Sir John married Judith Dudley Folk, of Nashville, in 1937. They had three children, Jack, Anne and Christopher. His second wife, Irene Butler Templeton, died in 1993.
FT Syndication Service
SIR John Marks Templeton, who has died at the age of 95 in Nassau, conquered Wall Street to become one of the world's greatest investors and philanthropists.
Sir John, who was one of the first people to set up a mutual fund shop in New York 65 years ago, had a simple philosophy: If 90 per cent of people are selling something it is probably undervalued; look in countries where other people aren't looking; and do the opposite of others.
Today there are tens of thousands of listed mutual funds in the US, many of which claim to follow his philosophy of picking good-value stocks and investing in the long term. It is a style still adhered to by Franklin Templeton Investments, whose roots lie in the fund Sir John founded in 1954.
That fund - the Templeton Growth fund - turned in annualised returns of 15 per cent a year until Sir John's retirement in 1992, when he sold his fund management firm to the Franklin Group for about $440m. He made his name for being one of the earliest global fund managers focusing on investing in stocks outside the US and was an early investor in emerging markets and in Japan in the early 1960s.
For 50 years Sir John - who was a prolific writer - has become a byword for his pithy aphorisms and investment adages. He is credited with warning that the words "it's different this time" were the most expensive in the English language. One of his pithiest sayings was: "An investor who has all the answers doesn't even understand the questions."
However, he is perhaps best known for saying: "Bull markets are born on pessimism, grown on scepticism, mature on optimism and die on euphoria. The time of maximum pessimism is the best time to buy, and the time of maximum optimism is the best time to sell."
He famously bought equities the day after the 1987 stock market crash. But 50 years before he was establishing a reputation for shrewd judgment. In 1939 as the second world war began he bought shares in Missouri Pacific Railway - because in any big war, he said, railways become prosperous.
Obituary
Sir John Marks Templeton
Inventor, Philanthropist
John Marks Templeton grew up as a presbyterian in a small farming town in Tennessee. His father was a farmer and a self-educated lawyer while his mother's interest in spirituality and healing was a strong influence. He thought of becoming a missionary but went to Yale instead. He graduated in 1934 and went on to become a Rhodes Scholar in Oxford where 50 years later, his endowment founded the Templeton College of business and management.
On leaving Oxford, he travelled before returning to the US to buy 100 shares of all stocks under $1 that had been hit by the Depression. The returns on his investments helped launch his career on Wall Street in 1937.
Throughout Sir John's life he worked to marry his interest in investment with his religious convictions. Sir John was a committed Christian and in 1972 established the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. Sir John brought together a panel of nine judges, with at least one judge from each of the five leading religions, to recognise exemplary achievement in work related to life's spiritual dimension.
He also set up the John Templeton Foundation in 1987, which hands out about $70m in annual grants to study the links between science and religion.
Sir John became a British citizen in 1962 - largely, his friends said, so he could give his money away in the Bahamas, where he lived, the UK and the US. It was a practicality, not a tax issue as has been suggested, they said.
In 1987 he was knighted for his philanthropic efforts.
Sir John continued to be an active investor and philanthropist well into his 90s, managing the John Templeton Foundation's $250m endowment as well as his own personal wealth, estimated at more than $700m.
He could be very charitable. He said the world should love everyone, even Saddam Hussein. "I try to fill my mind with what is going to be the best for humanity in the long run and with unlimited love. Saddam Hussein? Yes, I love him too."
"People who appear most evil usually don't intend to do evil," he told the FT in 2003. Sir John married Judith Dudley Folk, of Nashville, in 1937. They had three children, Jack, Anne and Christopher. His second wife, Irene Butler Templeton, died in 1993.
FT Syndication Service