Franklin Templeton

Investors Against Genocide sought to engage with Franklin Templeton, including submitting and defending shareholder proposals for genocide-free investing. Ultimately, that engagement failed. Franklin Templeton was not interested in having a genocide-free investing policy and consistently opposed genocide-free investing shareholder proposals. Investors Against Genocide is no longer engaging Franklin Templeton.

Franklin Templeton, along with many financial institutions, has invested in the handful of foreign oil companies which helped to fund the government of Sudan’s deadly campaign of violence against millions of its citizens. Franklin Templeton does not have a genocide-free investing policy and has been one of the world’s largest owners of shares of both PetroChina and Sinopec, two of those oil companies. These investments, while legal, are inconsistent with U.S. sanctions explicitly prohibiting transactions relating to Sudan and Syria’s petroleum industries.

Genocide-free investing was on the ballot three times at Franklin Resources, the parent company of the Franklin Templeton funds — at the annual meeting on April 12, 2019, March 12, 2014, and March 13, 2013.

Genocide-free investing was on the proxy ballot for 6 Franklin Templeton funds voting on October 30, 2017, for 4 Franklin Templeton funds voting on March 2 and April 7, 2015 and for 2 Franklin Templeton funds voting on March 1, 2013.

Read the details about the proposals, the meetings, and the results of these Franklin Templeton votes.

  • Has a genocide-free investing policy
  • Divested from PetroChina
  • Voted for GFI shareholder proposal