By Saeed Azhar

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Goldman Sachs’ “small investment” of up to $1 billion in asset manager T. Rowe Price is aimed at giving investors broader access to private markets, CEO David Solomon said on Monday.

Solomon was explaining the rationale for the investment announced last week, including their partnership to offer retail investors private market products.

“This is about our partnering in retirement and in other areas to give investors access to some very, very unique products,” Solomon told investors at a conference in New York. “When you think about alternatives broadly, we’re still in the early innings of the secular growth of alternatives and the participation by investors in these products.”

Solomon reiterated that Goldman could look at a deal in asset or wealth management to accelerate growth, but cautioned the bar for such a transaction is “very high.”

The bank is seeing a pickup in strategic mergers and acquisitions, but noted that activity from financial sponsors is relatively muted.

Solomon also said the Federal Reserve’s policy rate is not “extraordinarily restrictive” to deter risk appetite.

Goldman, the world’s top-ranked adviser for mergers and acquisitions, has benefited from a revival in deals that bolstered its second-quarter profits.

Global M&A has reached $2.6 trillion, the highest for the first seven months of the year since the 2021 pandemic-era peak. Corporate boards are seeking growth, and optimism about an artificial intelligence boom has offset the uncertainty over U.S. tariffs.

(Reporting by Saeed Azhar; Editing by Lananh Nguyen and Richard Chang)