Legg Mason’s Western Asset REIT Plans $160M IPO

 (Save the date: RealShare Apartments comes to the Westin Bonaventure, Los Angeles, October 24.)

PASADENA, CA-Legg Mason’s Western Asset Mortgage Capital Corp., based here, said Monday it plans to conduct an IPO, pricing eight million shares of common stock at $20 per share. In a release, the REIT says it plans to use the net proceeds to purchase agency RMBS.

The $160-million stock offering will be augmented by an offering of about 2.2 million units, consisting of a share and a warrant to half a share, and 46,043 shares in concurrent private placements. This would give the REIT a market value of $207 million, according to published reports.

WAMCC filed a registration statement with the SEC on Monday, but the statement has not yet become effective. According to SEC documents, the REIT hasn’t yet targeted any specific acquisitions, and therefore would-be investors in the stock will be unable to evaluate the REIT’s investments beforehand.

Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and Jefferies & Co. Inc. are acting as the joint book runners for the proposed offering. Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. Inc., RBC Capital Markets LLC and JMP Securities LLC are acting as co-lead managers, with National Securities Corp., Sterne, Agee & Leach Inc. and Wunderlich Securities Inc. acting as co-managers.

With offices here and in New York City, Western Asset, which currently has about $447 billion in assets under management globally, launched the REIT as a Delaware corporation in June 2009. The REIT has had no operations since then, according to SEC documents.