Brazil Among ‘World’s Most Exciting Markets,’ Templeton’s Mark Mobius Says

Brazil is among the “world’s most exciting markets,” according to Mark Mobius, executive chairman of Franklin Templeton Investment’s Emerging Markets Group.

Mobius made the comments in a post on Templeton’s website following a recent trip to Sao Paulo to look for new investments and to visit companies that his firm had invested in. The fund manager visited banks, one of the nation’s car rental firms, a beer and soft-drink producer and a software company, he wrote, without naming the businesses.

“We continue to keep our long-term eye on Brazil, one of the world’s most exciting markets,” Mobius wrote in his website post, which was dated yesterday. The nation is among the most “economically vibrant” in the Western hemisphere, he wrote.

Brazil’s government is cutting interest rates, taxes and loosening lending requirements to boost growth and offset the effects of Europe’s debt crisis. The nation’s industrial production rose in December at the fastest pace in seven months, as a weaker currency and lower borrowing costs help domestic manufacturers in Latin America’s biggest economy, according to government data on Jan. 31.

The Bovespa Index, Brazil’s benchmark stock gauge, surged 16 percent this year after slumping 18 percent in 2011. The measure trades at 10.5 times estimated profit, compared with its four-year average of 11.7 times. The MSCI BRIC Index, which tracks Brazil, Russia, India and China, trades for 9.2 times.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Darren Boey at dboey@bloomberg.net

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Templeton Asset Management's Mobius

David Rochkind/Bloomberg

Mark Mobius, executive chairman of Templeton Asset Management's Emerging Markets Group.

Mark Mobius, executive chairman of Templeton Asset Management's Emerging Markets Group. Photographer: David Rochkind/Bloomberg