So much for retirement! Famed emerging markets PM Mark Mobius is back in the asset management business, just three months after retiring from Franklin Templeton at the age of 81. Yet fundsters, platform executives, FAs, and investors on this side of the pond may not have cause for excitement just yet.

On Wednesday Mobius and two of his old Franklin Templeton colleagues, Carlos Hardenberg and Greg Konieczny, unveiled their new asset management startup, Mobius Capital Partners. The London-based shop will focus on investing in emerging and frontier markets equities, but with a twist: finding "companies with the potential to improve their ESG footprint," according to the MCP website. As Franklin Templeton chief Greg Johnson predicted back in January, it doesn't seem that "retirement will slow [Mobius] down much."

Bloomberg, CityWire, the Times of London, the Financial Times, Financial Planning, and P&I all reported on the launch of Mobius Capital Partners.

Many industry insiders and investors from the U.S. know Hong Kong-based Mobius from his more than three decades (mostly leading) at the Templeton Emerging Markets Group, though in 2016 he passed the reins. Yet his new firm's offerings won't be available here just yet; the trio plan to start a Luxembourg-domiciled SI-CAV open-ended fund, with fund administration from UBS Fund Management (Luxembourg) S.A. and research support from MSCI ESG. There's no word yet on whether or not the trio also plan to bring their strategies to the U.S. via mutual funds or SMAs.

Mobius describes his new shop as "built on the fundamental aim to invest for good, bringing opportunities to make a real impact in countries where it is needed most." He praises Hardenberg and Konieczny as "two partners with an enviable legacy and track record."

Hardenberg, an alumnus of Cass Business School, served as a PM at Franklin Templeton before leaving earlier this year. He spent more than 25 years over two stints there, first as an analyst and then a PM, and he also worked at Bear Stearns.

Konieczny, an alumnus of the University of Gdansk, spent more than 22 years at Franklin Templeton, rising to director of specialty strategies for the emerging markets group that Mobius led. Konieczny, who also left Franklin Templeton earlier this year, previously worked at Bank Gdanski SA.

Mobius is an alumnus of both Boston University and MIT. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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