T Rowe Price Group, a Baltimore-based investment company, purchased 26% stake in UTI Asset Management, an India-based money manager, from State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda and Life Insurance Corp of India, reported Bloomberg.
In a phone interview to the news agency, Jaideep Bhattacharya, chief marketing officer at UTI Asset, said that the four government owned firms that each hold 25% of UTI Asset, sold equal stakes to T Rowe Price.
According to the Association of Mutual Funds of India, the purchase will give T Rowe Price access to a market where assets managed by mutual funds soared to INR7.63 trillion by the end of October 2009, from INR1.48 trillion in October 2004.
AP Kurian, chairman of the Association of Mutual Funds of India, said: “The deal is a clear indication of the growing opportunity in the Indian mutual fund industry. India’s mutual fund industry is one of the fastest growing in the world,” reported the news agency.
