T. Rowe Price Buys F/m
T. Rowe Price acquires F/m Investments for an undisclosed sum
T. Rowe Price, a Baltimore asset manager with about $1.9 trillion under management, agreed to acquire F/m Investments. The acquisition adds a fast-growing fixed-income ETF specialist to its lineup, with F/m managing about $19 billion in total.
F/m has more than $10 billion in 20 ETFs and the rest in separately managed accounts. This acquisition would more than double the assets T. Rowe holds in its own fixed-income ETFs.
F/m's Focus
F/m pioneered single-bond ETFs, giving investors more precise control over their exposure. Its flagship is the F/m US Treasury 3 Month Bill ETF, which at $7.2 billion accounts for more than 70% of F/m's ETF assets and charges 0.15% a year.
The firm has kept innovating, creating an ultrashort take on inflation-protected bonds and designing the F/m Compoundr U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF. This ETF rotates among broad bond ETFs to sidestep distributions, and therefore taxes, giving investors a way to hold bonds as a diversifier without generating yield.
What it Brings T. Rowe
For T. Rowe, the acquisition of F/m brings in a focused, methodical issuer whose products are clearly resonating with investors. The firm manages roughly $1.9 trillion in total, but ranks just 29th among US ETF providers.
The deal is the second acquisition of an ETF manager announced this month, according to a report by Yahoo Finance. Last week, Goldman Sachs agreed to buy NEOS Investments for up to $2.25 billion.
Comparison of ETFs
| ETF | Assets | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| F/m US Treasury 3 Month Bill ETF (TBIL) | $7.2 billion | 0.15% |
| iShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond ETF (IEF) | not disclosed | not disclosed |
| F/m Ultrashort Treasury Inflation-Protected Security ETF (RBIL) | not disclosed | not disclosed |
| F/m Compoundr U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (CPAG) | not disclosed | not disclosed |
The T. Rowe transaction is expected to close in early 2027, as reported by Yahoo Finance. The acquisition is part of a wave of consolidation taking place across the $16.3 trillion U.S. ETF industry, as large asset managers buy their way into the fast growing industry. T. Rowe Price currently has 10 U.S.-listed fixed income ETFs with $6.5 billion in them, and 34 ETFs with almost $33 billion in AUM.
