Private Markets Sector

T. Rowe Price agreed to acquire F/m Investments, a $19 billion fixed income specialist, for an undisclosed price, announced August 20, 2026. The deal will more than double T. Rowe Price's fixed income ETF assets and add roughly 9% to its fixed income AUM, which sits within the firm's $1.87 trillion total asset base as of July 31, 2026. F/m, founded in 2019 and led by CEO Alexander Morris, manages 20 ETFs spanning Treasuries, TIPS, corporate bonds, and municipal securities, along with separately managed accounts and institutional separate accounts. The firm is known for launching the first standardized single-security U.S. Treasury ETFs and filing the first SEC application for tokenized ETF shares. Upon closing in early 2027, F/m will operate as "F/m Investments, a T. Rowe Price Company," retaining its brand, leadership, and operating model; Morris will report to Arif Husain, T. Rowe Price's head of global fixed income. For T. Rowe Price, the acquisition expands its liquidity, cash management, and customized fixed income solutions while bringing in F/m's ETF product development expertise and access to F/m's Treasury products. For F/m, the scale of T. Rowe Price's distribution network and resources enables continued innovation without the constraints of operating independently.

Commercial International Bank's digital banking venture Yomo has obtained a license from Egypt's Central Bank to operate as a digital bank, with $300 million in capital and a target launch in the fourth quarter of 2026. The license follows preliminary approval granted in August 2026 and clears Yomo to move from regulatory preparation into final operational readiness—technology validation, cybersecurity testing, and compliance work—before it can begin unrestricted banking operations. Yomo is wholly owned by CIB, Egypt's largest private-sector bank, which reported first-half 2026 net income of EGP 39.3 billion, up 18% year over year. The venture will initially target mass-market consumers, small and micro businesses, and Egyptians abroad with a limited range of services before expanding its product portfolio. Yomo enters a market where Banque Misr's One Bank became Egypt's first digital bank to receive a formal operating license in March 2026, and where QNB Egypt obtained approval in October 2025 to establish Easy Bank. The Central Bank of Egypt's digital banking framework, introduced in July 2023, requires a minimum issued and paid-up capital of EGP 2 billion for banks conducting general banking business excluding large-corporate financing, with the largest shareholder required to hold at least 30% of capital—a structural advantage CIB's ownership provides. CIB's backing gives Yomo financial stability many independent fintech challengers lack, but the commercial test remains demanding: Yomo must prove a digitally native model can attract deposits and originate credit more efficiently than CIB's own increasingly digital traditional franchise in a market already served by widespread mobile payments and rapid financial inclusion.

India's securities regulator banned JPMorgan's Mauritius-based unit Copthall from the country's capital markets and impounded 37 million rupees ($386,000) in alleged wrongful gains for manipulating the closing auction that sets prices on the BSE Sensex Index. On August 13, Copthall placed buy orders for 3.17 million shares—nearly 12 times those of the next-largest trader—then canceled roughly a third of them, according to SEBI's order. The regulator alleged the firm used these outsized, then-canceled orders to artificially move the closing price and benefit its expiry-day options positions, which would otherwise have expired worthless. Mansi Share and Stock Broking, a local broker, executed the same pattern with 1.28 million shares in sell orders, nearly all later scrapped. This is SEBI's first enforcement action against market manipulation in the new auction system, introduced earlier this month for over 200 stocks in India's $5.1 trillion market. The action mirrors SEBI's accusation last year against US trading firm Jane Street of similar conduct; Jane Street has denied the charges and appealed. JPMorgan declined to comment. Copthall's holdings in Indian stocks have shrunk to less than 380 million rupees as of June 30, down from over 55 billion rupees in the past, suggesting the unit's role in India has already diminished. Both firms have 21 days to respond to the allegations.