Legg Mason not planning to raise fresh capital: CEO
BOSTON (Reuters) - Legg Mason Inc (LM.N) is not planning to raise fresh capital to support investments in risky securities made by its money-market funds, the U.S. asset manager's chief executive said on Tuesday.
"We do not anticipate another capital raise," Mark Fetting told the Merrill Lynch Banking & Financial Services Conference in New York, which was monitored by webcast.
Fetting said last month Legg had "ample capital" and reiterated on Tuesday the firm had free cash of $2.5 billion to cover the group's exposure to off-balance sheet structured investment vehicles (SIVs).
Legg has put up more than $1.7 billion over the past year to support money-market funds that have invested in risky asset-backed commercial paper issued by SIVs. The company has booked charges for the support, forcing it to post losses for three straight quarters.
It has also raised more than $2 billion of capital in two rounds this year. But some investors have been concerned that Legg may need to raise more capital, potentially diluting their holdings.
Legg Mason, the second largest publicly traded U.S. asset manager, had assets of $842 billion as of September 30.
Its shares ended up 7.3 percent at $18.65 on Tuesday in a weaker overall market.
(Reporting by Muralikumar Anantharaman, editing by Richard Chang)
