Legg Mason Announces Completion of Exchange Offer for Its Equity Units

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, [phone], or Media,

Mary Athridge, [phone], both of Legg Mason, Inc.



Web Site:  http://www.leggmason.com/ 

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