Legg Mason Capital Management will lay off from 40 to 50 of its approximately 140 employees in response to an “unprecedented market environment,” said spokeswoman Mary Athridge.
No senior investment professionals will be affected; the cuts will be focused on operations and administrative personnel, she said.
Ms. Athridge said the “very difficult decision” to make broad layoffs for the first time in the firm’s 26-year history reflected the need to “size the company appropriately” amid a plunge in equity markets this year that has been particularly hard on value managers.
In an earnings conference call Wednesday, Mark R. Fetting, president and CEO of parent Legg Mason Inc., said Legg Mason Capital Management’s client assets stood at $28 billion as of Sept. 30, down by more than half from $59.7 billion at the end of 2007.
