Franklin Templeton takes Embark stake amid UK retirement expansion plans

First investment of its kind

Franklin Templeton has become retirement solutions provider Embark Group's second-largest investor as the asset manager eyes further expansion into the UK's long-term savings market over the next five years.

The deal represents a move to "diversify" Franklin Templeton's business model and take a foothold in the UK's "high growth" long-term savings market, as well as grow its brand among consumers, according to UK country head Martyn Gilbey. Gilbey told Investment Week that the purchase was a "considered part" of Franklin Templeton's "strategy to diversify our business model and our revenue generation by participating in the long-term savings market". He explained: "Over the next five to six years, it is important to our successes and to growing our franchise in the UK that we grow our und...