T. Rowe Price Will Buy Out Robert Fleming in Joint Venture

T. Rowe Price Associates of Baltimore will pay $780 million in cash to buy out Robert Fleming Holdings, Ltd., of London in the firm's joint venture, Rowe Price-Fleming International of Baltimore.

T. Rowe Price moved to buy Fleming's 50 percent interest as a result of Chase Manhattan Corp.'s planned acquisition of Fleming, said M. David Testa, the chairman of T. Rowe Price-Fleming International, in a statement. Chase and T. Rowe Price compete for assets in the U.S. mutual fund industry. The T. Rowe Price-Fleming deal is expected to close in about four months, T. Rowe Price announced last week.

The Chase-Fleming deal, also announced last week, calls for Chase to pay $7.7 billion in cash and stock for Fleming. The acquisition expands Chase's international investment banking business.

Rowe Price-Fleming International manages about $43 billion in assets, including nearly $24 billion invested in 13 no-load T. Rowe Price mutual funds.

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