Despite a struggling economy weighed down by the subprime mortgage crisis and trouble in the credit markets, investment firm T. Rowe Price soared to record revenues, net income and earnings per share, its executives told shareholders at their annual meeting.
World issues were also at the forefront of the meeting as the firm was praised for its sale of investments in foreign companies supporting the government of Sudan, accused of engaging in genocide in the Darfur region.
T. Rowe posted net 2007 revenues of $2.22 billion, up from $1.815 billion the year before; net income of $670.6 million, up from $529.6 million; and diluted earnings per share of $2.40, up from $1.90.
But Chairman of the Board Brian Rogers and Chief Executive and President James Kennedy cautioned that signs point to a much more modest 2008 and said the company would look inward to build its services and add staff.
“This is going to go on for some time,” Kennedy said. “We?re not coming out of these economic doldrums anytime soon.”
Adam Sterling, director of the Sudan Divestment Task Force, and Stuart Dalheim of Calvert Asset Management Company praised T. Rowe?s response to letters it sent to top investment firms suggesting they look at investments in companies supporting the government of war-torn Sudan.
Dalheim said T. Rowe Price was “much more responsive” than most of the firms and praised its corporate responsibility statement, which outlines steps taken to monitor investments in the country.
In the fourth quarter, T. Rowe Price divested 55 million shares of PetroChina, one of companies most linked to Sudan, worth $104 million, according to company spokesman Brian Lewbart.
“We hope we?ll be able to reinvest in Sudan when their government no longer supports the terrorism, basically, that?s going on there,” Kennedy said.
But a changing world picture has also benefited T. Rowe Price. Rogers pointed to the firm?s launch last year of an African and Middle East fund, saying such a move would have been inconceivable just 10 or 15 years ago.
Although Kennedy said T. Rowe would focus on expanding its core offices rather than moving into new markets, a more open world provides those possibilities.
“We?re in Hong Kong,” he said. “Could we be in Shanghai a decade from now? Could be.”
On Thursday, T. Rowe Price stock was up .34 percent to close at $53.02.
