Carlos Hardenberg, who founded Mobius Capital Partners together with Mark Mobius in 2018, will lead the firm, which will continue to manage Mobius Investment Trust plc, the statement said.

Prior to launching the partnership, Mobius spent more than 30 years at Franklin Templeton Investments, most recently as executive chairman of the Templeton Emerging Markets Group, according to a biography on his current firm's website.

Mobius also serves on the Economic Advisory Board of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) - the World Bank's private investment arm - and has been a supervisory board member of OMV Petrom in Romania since 2010.

(Reporting by Karin Strohecker; editing by Dhara Ranasinghe and Chizu Nomiyama)