Legg Mason said Wednesday it had suffered its biggest loss in at least 25 years after writing down the value of its private client and hedge fund businesses by $1.2bn. The US money manager lost $1.5bn in the three months to December, compared with a profit of $155m a year earlier. It is Legg’s fourth consecutive quarterly loss, and worse than analysts expected. Investors withdrew $77bn in the quarter, continuing a year-long trend that helped reduce the group’s assets under management to less than $700bn, 30% lower than a year ago. The group’s Permal hedge fund group, which had largely escaped redemptions, began to be hit by outflows from September, said Legg.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Thursday, January 29th, 2009 at 5:49 and is filed under Capital markets, Hedge funds. Tagged with Legg Mason. Edit this entry.