Western Asset Management is rebranding. According to a report in Bloomberg, the Baltimore, Maryland-based mutual funds company will drop the name of its parent, Legg Mason Inc., in a bid to boost sales.

WAMCO's U.S. funds will use only the Western Asset name beginning August 1, as reported in filings made with the SEC. As of March 31, the mutual fund unit held a total of $447 billion.

Legg Mason spokesperson Maria Rosati told Bloomberg that the switch is part of a strategy to make the funds more competitive.

As the Bloomberg story details, Legg Mason has struggled of late, with 18 consecutive quarters of withdrawals and a 5.1 percent loss as of this March 30 compared to a year earlier, while WAMCO's funds have recovered strongly from the 2008 financial crisis, and this year its $9.4 billion Western Asset Core Plus Bond Fund has returned 3.8 percent, better than 86 percent of competing fixed-income funds, according to Bloomberg's data.
Pensions & Investments also reported that Western Asset Management also plans to add more share classes and modify investment strategies as part of the rebrand, steps that they expect will be completed by October. 

Edited by: Chris Cumming


Stay ahead of the news ... Sign up for our email alerts now
CLICK HERE