The arrangement is T Rowe Price’s first direct retail bank partnership in Singapore and its debut into the country’s retail fund market, according to media release by the two firms.
“This signifies the next stage of our business growth after receiving a Singapore retail distribution license in December 2021, which allows us to extend our partnerships beyond private banks,” said Elsie Chan, head of distribution for Asia ex-Japan at T Rowe Price.
Under the partnership, three investment strategies will be available to domestic investors in what the firms identify as a low-growth, rising inflation and high-volatility market environment.
The T Rowe Price China Evolution Equity Strategy aims to find “under-discovered opportunities and the rising stars that the asset manager believes will benefit from China’s economic growth and disruptive innovation. The T Rowe Price Global Focused Growth Strategy is one of the firm’s most unconstrained equity strategies and invests into “secular trends”, while the T Rowe Price US Large Cap Growth Equity Strategy offers a diversified portfolio of “disruptive and innovative” US companies with double-digit “real” earnings per share growth.
“We are constantly on the lookout for quality investment options for our clients and we are excited to be the first bank in Singapore to partner with T Rowe Price in their first foray into the local retail fund market,” said Gavin Chia, head of managed investments, investment advisory and strategy at Standard Chartered Bank Singapore
“Sophisticated investors are turning to equities to hedge against inflation. However, the ability to conduct robust fundamental research could make a big difference in investment returns,” he added.
T Rowe Price fund managers use a combination of fundamental research and bottom-up stock picking. The Baltimore-headquartered firm has $1.55tr of AUM, first established a presence in Asia in 1987. Since expanding its footprint to Singapore in 1996, and as of 14 April 2022, the firm had a total of 19 funds that are recognized by the Monetary Authority of Singapore for sale to local retail investors.
