Asset management roundup: T. Rowe Price to buy Oak Hill Advisors

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T. Rowe Price Group is set to take over Oak Hill Advisors (OHA), an alternative credit manager with $53bn (€45.7bn) in assets under management.

OHA will become T. Rowe Price’s private markets platform, operating as a standalone business with autonomy over its investment process.

Under the terms of the transaction, T. Rowe Price will pay up to approximately $4.2bn for 100% of the equity of OHA and certain other entities that have common ownership, with $3.3bn payable at closing.

“Scale is increasingly important as a competitive advantage in sourcing financing opportunities and driving differentiated returns across alternative credit markets,” said T. Rowe Price.

“T. Rowe Price’s full range of equity, fixed income, and multi-asset solutions, along with its global footprint, is anticipated to facilitate these benefits of scale, offering greater opportunities for investors, borrowers, and financial sponsors.”

LGIM launches Europe’s first local currency India govvie ETF

Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) has launched what it says is the first ETF in Europe to provide dedicated exposure to India government bonds, “a convenient and transparent way for UK and European investors to access the country’s growing local-currency government bond market”.

India is the second biggest emerging market and six largest economy in the world. It is also the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, after China and the US.

Its sovereign bond market has expanded rapidly in recent years and is expected to continue growing due to positive structural trends, LGIM said. Historically there has been low correlation between local-currency Indian bonds and other emerging and developed-market debt.

“Clear progress has been made by the Indian authorities to allow easier access for foreign investors and the country has been on a path to be included across major fixed income indices,” said Lee Collins, head of index fixed income at LGIM. “We think it is now an appropriate time to offer this product to investors.”

Net-zero a goal for a quarter of largest asset managers

Almost a quarter of the 500 largest asset managers have set net-zero targets for the investment and more ambitious targets are planned, NN Investment Partners said its research has found.

The asset manager used natural language processing to analyse more than 10,000 responsible investing publications, finding that asset managers mentioned CO₂ emissions in 33% of their ESG-related publications this year compared with 6% in 2016.

According to NN IP, the text analysis showed that asset managers mostly focus on setting mid-term goals for the proportion of their investments to be managed in line with a net zero policy, with 2025 and 2030 often mentioned as target dates.

“Asset managers have high expectations for the outcome of the climate change conference in Glasgow,” said Sebastiaan Reinders, head of investment science at NN IP.

“The 150,000 paragraphs contain diverse but optimistic views on the expected real world outcomes from the COP26. The research shows professional investors expect coordinated, meaningful and actionable agreements on climate policy will be reached this time.”