T. Rowe Price Group agreed to acquire the Henderson High Yield Opportunities Fund and its investment team from Henderson Global Investors, said Henderson spokeswoman Angela Warburton.
After the transaction is concluded, it will be launched as a new mutual fund, the T. Rowe Price U.S. High Yield Fund. The transaction is expected to close in late May 2017, subject to shareholder approvals.
The fund currently has $57 million in assets under management.
The new T. Rowe Price fund will have a similar investment strategy, which focuses on total return through investments in U.S. high-yield bonds. T. Rowe’s existing $29.4 billion global high-yield strategy has been closed to new investors since 2012.
The Henderson fund is managed by Kevin Loome. Upon completion of the deal, Mr. Loome will become a portfolio manager at T. Rowe and report to Ted Wiese, head of fixed income at T. Rowe Price. The portfolio management team — four analysts and a trader — will remain in a separate office in Philadelphia. Trading and research will remain fully separate from T. Rowe Price’s existing platforms.
Ms. Warburton said that this deal is due in part to Henderson Global Investors’ impending merger with Janus Capital Group. As a result of the planned merger, it was decided that Henderson’s U.S. high-yield team based in Philadelphia would not remain once the businesses combined because of overlap, as Janus also has a U.S. high-yield team.
T. Rowe Price Group had $810.8 billion in AUM as of Dec. 31.
