Mobius led emerging market investment at Franklin Templeton Investments for three decades and is known for his bullish view on China. Now, though, he said, he “would be very, very careful” investing in the country.
“The bottom line is that China is moving in a completely different direction than what Deng Xiaoping instituted when they started the big reform program,” he said, referring to the former Chinese leader.
“Now you have a government which is taking golden shares in companies all over China. That means they’re going to try to control all of these companies … So I don’t think it’s a very good picture when you see the government becoming more and more control-oriented in the economy.”
Mobius, who calls himself “the Indiana Jones of Emerging Market investing”, told FOX Business he’s increasing exposure to alternative markets such as India and Brazil.
Mobius and HSBC could not be reached at the weekend.