As Miller’s luster dimmed, Legg Mason began diversifying through a series of acquisitions under Joseph Sullivan, now the firm’s chief executive officer. In 2014, it bought Martin Currie to expand into active international stock funds, and QS Investors, a global quantitative equity firm. This year, it bought a majority in real estate investment firm Clarion Partners, said it would merge its Permal hedge fund platform with EnTrust Capital, and made a deal to expand its exchange-traded fund business.
Miller, who didn’t move to ClearBridge, has been focusing on the Opportunity Trust. The fund has beaten 96 percent of peers over the past five years, returning an annualized 19 percent, compared with 17 percent for the S&P 500. In 2014, he started a new fund under his own name, the Miller Income Opportunity Trust, which he runs with his son. That fund has about $91 million in assets.
Baltimore-based LMM, which was started in 1999, will continue to oversee both funds. There will be no changes to the investment team.
Up and Down
“Bill has been an important part of the growth and success of Legg Mason over the years and we appreciate his many contributions,” Sullivan said in the statement issued today. “Today’s announcement is consistent with Legg Mason’s strategy of focusing on our nine diverse managers with size and scale that can be leveraged across global distribution.”
The Opportunity Trust has been up and down in 2016: the fund rose almost 10 percent in July, but is still down 8.5 percent for the year. McLemore said the fund’s recent rebound has been fueled by a shift in investor sentiment toward cyclical stocks and away from defensive ones.
“We have seen in this market that people will crowd into and out of things all at the same time,” McLemore said. “That can create great opportunities, but it also creates significant volatility.”