A 26% stake in UTI is one of only three significant strategic investments T Rowe Price has made in 73 years, the others being a 2003 Japanese venture with Sumitomo Mitsui and Daiwa Securities, and a 1979 joint venture with Robert Fleming, then a UK fund manager.

The latter, Rowe-Price Fleming, allowed T Rowe Price to start distributing non-US equity and bond products to its American clients, managed by the joint venture. The staff, which came from T Rowe Price and Robert Fleming, included Chris Alderson, a 21-year veteran of the venture and T Rowe Price, who was made chief executive of T Rowe Price International, the operation responsible for all investment activities outside the US, last year.