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The SEC has given T. Rowe Price final approval for the firm to introduce four nontransparent equity ETFs, which the firm expects to introduce sometime in the third quarter.
They will be the first ETFs of any kind for the Baltimore-based asset manager, which has approximately $1.9 trillion in assets.
The four funds are the Blue Chip Growth ETF, Dividend Growth ETF, Equity Income ETF and Growth Stock ETF. They will all use the same investment strategies and portfolio managers that manage their corresponding mutual funds but their expense ratios will be slightly lower, from 50 basis points for the Dividend Growth ETF to 57 basis points for the T. Rowe Price Blue Chip Growth ETF. The ETFs will list on the NYSE Arca.
Asked whether the new ETFs would cannibalize mutual fund counterparts, a T. Rowe Price spokesman said the purpose of the funds was to provide investors the "formats of their choosing, letting them decide what works best for themselves."
