Mutual fund manager T. Rowe Price Group Inc. said Monday it is buying a 26 percent stake in Indian asset manager and mutual fund company UTI Asset Management Co. and UTI Trustee Co. for about $138 million.
UTI serves at least 9.75 million investor accounts in India and offers a broad array of domestic fixed-income and equity mutual fund strategies. T. Rowe Price is buying its stake from existing shareholders.
T. Rowe Price said India's asset management industry has strong growth potential.
“Their general investment approach and client-focused model also lends itself to a solid cultural fit between our two companies,” Chief Executive James A.C. Kennedy said in a statement.
The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2009, the company said.
T. Rowe Price provides mutual funds and separate account management for individual and institutional investors.
Source: Business Week