T. Rowe Price, a prominent asset management firm, made a significant shift in its ETF offerings by launching five new actively managed stock exchange-traded funds (ETFs). This move marks a departure from their previous lineup of five active nontransparent ETFs, also known as ANTs or semitransparent ETFs.
The newly introduced funds are as follows:
- T. Rowe Price Capital Appreciation Equity ETF (TCAF)
- T. Rowe Price Growth ETF (TGRT)
- T. Rowe Price International ETF (TOUS)
- T. Rowe Price Small-Mid Cap ETF (TMSL)
- T. Rowe Price Value ETF (TVAL)
When T. Rowe Price first entered the ETF market in August 2020, they offered five ANTs based on their popular mutual funds. The semitransparent structure of these ETFs was primarily designed to safeguard the intellectual property of their funds and prevent front-running of trades.
Despite managing a significant $1.3 trillion in total assets, T. Rowe Price had only amassed $1 billion in assets under management (AUM) across 10 ETFs, including five transparent bond ETFs, prior to the launch of these new actively managed funds.
This trend reflects the challenges faced by semitransparent ETFs in general. Semitransparent ETFs have a combined total of $4 billion in assets, whereas the broader category of active ETFs has approximately $364 billion in assets.