Legg Mason To Acquire QS Investors - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Legg Mason Inc. (LM) announced an agreement to acquire QS Investors, a customized solutions and global quantitative equities provider based in New York, with $4.1 billion in assets under management and nearly $100 billion in assets under advisory. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Legg Mason's existing quantitative equity platform, Batterymarch Financial Management, and Legg Mason Global Asset Allocation, its existing solutions platform, will be integrated over time into QS Investors as a result of this transaction. The expanded platform will be branded under the QS Investors name, and headed by Janet Campagna as Chief Executive Officer and Rosemary Macedo as Chief Investment Officer.

Legg Mason expects to incur restructuring and transition costs of approximately $35 million, including $3 million in the March 2014 quarter and $30 million in fiscal year 2015. The acquisition is expected to close in the first fiscal quarter of fiscal year 2015. The acquisition and combination transaction is expected, excluding restructuring and transition costs, to be modestly accretive to Legg Mason's earnings in the first year.