/bullet/ 711 *SA1
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SHARE CLAS REDESIGNATION
EFFECTIVE JANUARY 1, 1999
Class A - Formerly Class I
Class B - New Class
Class C - Formerly Class II
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SUPPLEMENT DATED APRIL 1, 1999
TO THE STATEMENT OF ADDITIONAL INFORMATION OF
TEMPLETON DEVELOPING MARKETS TRUST
DATED MAY 1, 1998
The Statement of Additional Information is amended as follows:
I. As of January 1, 1999, the fund offers four classes of shares: Class A,
Class B, Class C and Advisor Class. Before January 1, 1999, Class A
shares were designated Class I and Class C shares were designated Class
II. All references in the Statement of Additional Information to Class I
shares are replaced with Class A, and all references to Class II shares
are replaced with Class C.
II. The first sentence of the second paragraph on the cover is revised to
read:
This SAI describes the fund's Class A, B and C shares.
III. The following is added to the "Officers and Trustees" section:
As of December 7, 1998, the officers and Board members, as a group, owned
of record and beneficially the following shares of the fund:
approximately 32,145 Class A shares and 30,381 Advisor Class shares, or
less than 1%, respectively, of the total outstanding Class A and Advisor
Class shares of the fund.
IV. The first sentence in the section "Additional Information on Exchanging
Shares," found under "How Do I Buy, Sell and Exchange Shares?", is
replaced with the following:
If you request the exchange of the total value of your account, declared
but unpaid income dividends and capital gain distributions will be
reinvested in the fund and exchanged into the new fund at Net Asset Value
when paid.
V. The following is added to the section "Additional Information on Selling
Shares," found under "How Do I Buy, Sell and Exchange Shares?":
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The contingent deferred sales charge will generally be waived for
redemptions of Class A shares by investors who purchased $1 million or
more without an initial sales charge if the Securities Dealer of record
waived its commission in connection with the purchase.
VI. In the section "The Rule 12b-1 Plans," found under "The Fund's
Underwriter,"
(a) the first sentence is replaced with the following:
Each class has a separate distribution or "Rule 12b-1" plan that was
adopted pursuant to Rule 12b-1 of the 1940 Act.
(b) the following paragraphs are added after the section "The Class I
Plan":
THE CLASS B PLAN. Under the Class B plan, the fund pays Distributors up
to 0.75% per year of the class' average daily net assets, payable
quarterly, to pay Distributors or others for providing distribution and
related services and bearing certain expenses. All distribution expenses
over this amount will be borne by those who have incurred them. The fund
may also pay a servicing fee of up to 0.25% per year of the class'
average daily net assets, payable quarterly. This fee may be used to pay
Securities Dealers or others for, among other things, helping to
establish and maintain customer accounts and records, helping with
requests to buy and sell shares, receiving and answering correspondence,
monitoring dividend payments from the fund on behalf of customers, and
similar servicing and account maintenance activities.
The expenses relating to the Class B plan are also used to pay
Distributors for advancing the commission costs to Securities Dealers
with respect to the initial sale of Class B shares. Further, the expenses
relating to the Class B plan may be used by Distributors to pay third
party financing entities that have provided financing to Distributors in
connection with advancing commission costs to Securities Dealers.
(c) and the section "The Class I and Class II Plans" is renamed "The
Class A, B and C Plans."
VII. The following performance figures are added under "How Does the Fund
Measure Performance? - Total Return":
The average annual total return for Class A for the one- and five- year
periods ended June 30, 1998, and for the period from inception (October
17, 1991) through June 30, 1998, was -41.40%, 1.56% and 3.39%,
respectively.
The average annual total return for Class C for the one-year period ended
June 30, 1998, and for the period from inception (May 1, 1995) through
June 30, 1998, was -39.78% and -3.09%, respectively.
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The cumulative total return for Class A for the one- and five-year
periods ended June 30, 1998, and for the period from inception (October
17, 1991) through June 30, 1998, was -41.40%, 8.04% and 25.04%,
respectively.
The cumulative total return for Class C for the one-year period ended
June 30, 1998, and for the period from inception (May 1, 1995) through
June 30, 1998, was -39.78% and -9.44%, respectively.
VIII. Under the section "Miscellaneous Information," the following is added:
The Information Services & Technology division of Resources established a
Year 2000 Project Team in 1996. This team has already begun making
necessary software changes to help the computer systems that service the
fund and its shareholders to be Year 2000 compliant. After completing
these modifications, comprehensive tests are conducted in one of
Resources' U.S. test labs to verify their effectiveness. Resources
continues to seek reasonable assurances from all major hardware, software
or data-services suppliers that they will be Year 2000 compliant on a
timely basis. Resources is also beginning to develop a contingency plan,
including identification of those mission critical systems for which it
is practical to develop a contingency plan. However, in an operation as
complex and geographically distributed as Resources' business, the
alternatives to use of normal systems, especially mission critical
systems, or supplies of electricity or long distance voice and data lines
are limited.
As of December 7, 1998, the principal shareholders of the Fund,
beneficial or of record, were as follows:
NAME AND ADDRESS SHARE AMOUNT PERCENTAGE
------------------------------------------------------------------------
ADVISOR CLASS
FTTC TTEE For ValuSelect 1,041,052.939 9.85%
Franklin Templeton 401k
Attn: Trading
P.O. Box 2438
Rancho Cordova, CA 95741-2438
IX. The following is added to the section "Financial Statements":
The unaudited financial statements contained in the Semiannual Report to
Shareholders of the fund, for the six-month period ended June 30, 1998,
are incorporated herein by reference.
X. In the "Useful Terms and Definitions" section, the definitions of "Class
I, Class II and Advisor Class" and "Offering Price" are replaced with the
following:
CLASS A, CLASS B, CLASS C AND ADVISOR CLASS - The fund offers four
classes of shares, designated "Class A," "Class B," "Class C" and
"Advisor Class." The four classes have proportionate interests in the
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fund's portfolio. They differ, however, primarily in their sales charge
and expense structures.
OFFERING PRICE - The public offering price is based on the Net Asset
Value per share of the class and includes the front-end sales charge. The
maximum front-end sales charge is 5.75% for Class A and 1% for Class C.
There is no front-end sales charge for Class B. We calculate the offering
price to two decimal places using standard rounding criteria.
Please keep this supplement for future reference.
