Legg Mason Announces Completion of Exchange Offer for Its Equity Units
August 17 2009 - 4:02PM
PR Newswire (US)
BALTIMORE, Aug. 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Legg Mason, Inc.
(NYSE:LM) announced today that it completed its offer to exchange
up to 21,850,000, or 95%, of its Equity Units in the form of
Corporate Units (the "Units"). The exchange offer for the units
expired at 12:01 a.m., New York City time, on August 12, 2009. Of
the 23,000,000 Units outstanding prior to the exchange offer,
20,939,212 Units, representing about 91.04 percent of the original
issue, were validly tendered in exchange for 0.8881 of a share of
Legg Mason's common stock and $6.25 in cash per Unit, all of which
were accepted for exchange by Legg Mason. In accordance with the
terms of the offer, Legg Mason exchanged 18,596,054 million shares
of its common stock and approximately $131 million of cash,
including cash paid in lieu of fractional shares, for the tendered
Units. Mark R. Fetting, Chairman and CEO of Legg Mason, said, "We
are very pleased with the success of the exchange offer. This
transaction meaningfully strengthens and simplifies our balance
sheet and enhances financial flexibility. As a result of this
transaction, approximately $1 billion of debt will effectively be
converted to shareholder equity (less cash offered in exchange) and
our coverage ratios will significantly improve. The transaction
will also be accretive to reported earnings per share in fiscal
2010 and 2011, excluding related transaction expenses." Citi acted
as lead dealer manager and structuring agent. BofA Merrill Lynch
and J.P. Morgan acted as co-managers, and MacKenzie Partners, Inc.
acted as the information and exchange agent for the exchange offer.
This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the
solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of
Legg Mason common stock in any state or other jurisdiction in which
such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to
registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such
state or other jurisdiction. About Legg Mason Legg Mason is a
global asset management firm, with $657 billion in assets under
management as of June 30, 2009. The Company provides active asset
management in many major investment centers throughout the world.
Legg Mason is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. Its common
stock and the Corporate Units are listed on the New York Stock
Exchange under the symbols "LM" and "LMI," respectively.
DATASOURCE: Legg Mason, Inc. CONTACT: Investor Relations, Alan
Magleby, +1-410-454-5246, or Media, Mary Athridge, +1-212-805-6035,
both of Legg Mason, Inc. Web Site: http://www.leggmason.com/
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