Goldman Sachs Acquires $100M T. Rowe Price Shares for Private Asset Expansion

Goldman Sachs has announced a significant collaboration with T. Rowe Price, acquiring up to 100 million dollars worth of shares in the global asset management company. This strategic move aims to bring private assets to the broader public and American retirees. The partnership will establish a distribution channel for alternative assets such as private equity, credit, infrastructure, and real estate funds, targeting individual investors, financial advisors, retirees, and their account custodians.

The collaboration is designed to leverage Goldman Sachs' decades of innovation in both public and private markets, combined with T. Rowe Price's expertise in active investment. This synergy aims to provide clients with new opportunities for retirement savings and wealth creation. The partnership will introduce a "target date fund strategy," which combines private assets with public market bonds and stocks, with plans to launch related products by mid-2024. Additionally, the collaboration will offer financial advisory services and joint-branded investment portfolios, covering private funds, public market mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), aimed at affluent individuals and high-net-worth investors.

This move by Goldman Sachs and T. Rowe Price is part of a broader trend among Wall Street firms to expand their reach into the private asset market. Earlier this year, Blackstone Group, a major player in real estate and private equity, partnered with Vanguard and Wellington Management to develop "multi-asset investment solutions," allowing individual investors to access both private and public market assets. Similarly, Apollo Global Management, Partners Group, and KKR have formed collaborations with traditional wealth and asset management firms to offer similar solutions.

This trend is driven by a desire to make private assets, which have traditionally been the domain of large institutional investors, more accessible to the general public. The recent administrative order by the Trump, which facilitates the inclusion of alternative investments and cryptocurrencies in retirement accounts, has further fueled this trend. The order directs the Securities and Exchange Commission to make it easier for 401(k) plans and other retirement accounts to use alternative assets, despite their lower liquidity and higher management costs.

Citigroup also announced a significant partnership on the same day, with its wealth management division teaming up with BlackRock. Under the agreement, BlackRock will manage 800 billion dollars in assets from Citigroup's wealth management clients, using various investment strategies that will eventually include private market assets. This agreement is set to commence in the fourth quarter of 2025. The move underscores the growing competition among Wall Street firms to capture a larger share of the wealth management market, particularly in the realm of private assets.