Legg Mason Opening Offices in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore

With an eye to gaining a foothold in China, Legg Mason is opening offices in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore, Reuters reports.

“China is an extraordinary growing asset management market, and at present, we’re currently evaluating our strategy as it relates to China, and we’ll continue to do so over time,” said Terence Johnson, managing director of international distribution.

Meanwhile, the firm is optimistic about U.S. markets for the foreseeable future. Mary Chris Gay, portfolio manager of the Legg Mason Value Fund and an assistant to Bill Miller, said: “Part of the reason we’re so optimistic about returns that we’re likely to see this calendar year and over the next couple of years is because of the underperformance the U.S. market has had over the past five to six years relative to other markets around the world, as well as the significant undervaluation we believe is apparent in the market.”

Gay added: “We don’t believe we’re likely to see the stellar returns of the late ’90s, but we do believe relative to European markets, we’ll see fairly good outcomes for the U.S. market.”

The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.

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