Franklin Templeton Investments Corp. announced today that it will be capping Templeton Global Smaller Companies Fund and Templeton Global Smaller Companies Corporate Class to new investors on April 30. After this date only existing securityholders will be able to purchase new securities of the funds.

“This move will allow the funds to continue to take advantage of new opportunities in the global small-cap market while ensuring strict adherence to the Templeton value investment style,” said Don Reed, President and CEO of Franklin Templeton Investments Corp. “Closing the funds at this time is in the best interest of current securityholders.”

Templeton Global Smaller Companies Fund is a value style mutual fund that invests in small-cap companies; those with a market capitalization of less than US$2.5 billion at the time of purchase, located anywhere in the world. As of Dec. 31, 2006, the fund had $1.6 billion in assets under management.

Templeton Global Smaller Companies Fund and Templeton Global Smaller Companies Corporate Class may re-open to new investors sometime in the future, depending on market conditions, and will continue to be part of both the Quotential and Tapestry managed investment programs.

“When Canadians invest in a Templeton fund they know that the portfolio manager is going to follow a rigorous set of value investment parameters to manage the assets in a fund. These are the same disciplines we have been successfully using at Templeton for more than 50 years,” said Reed. “This move will ensure that asset growth of these popular mutual funds does not exceed the current level of value investment opportunities available to them in the global small-cap market.”