Liberty All-Star(R) Equity Fund April 2009 Update


BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - May 11, 2009) - Below is the April 2009 Monthly Update for the Liberty All-Star® Equity Fund. (NYSE: USA)

                        April 2009 Monthly Update

     Performance                  NAV     Market Price  Discount
     -----------                 -----    ------------  --------
       Beginning of month value  $3.71       $2.92          21.3%
       Distributions                 -           -
       End of month value        $4.24       $3.39          20.0%
       Performance for month      14.3%       16.1%
       Performance year-to-date    3.7%        0.6%

       For daily data visit the Fund's website at www.all-starfunds.com
       or call 1-800-241-1850. The Fund's daily NAV is also available by
       using the symbol XUSAX. Past performance cannot predict future
       results.
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     Net Assets at Month-End ($millions)
     ----------------------------------
       Total                     $768.9
       Equities                  $748.6
       Preferred Stocks            $1.7

       Percent Invested            97.6%
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     Top 20 Holdings at Month-End (28.3% of portfolio)
     ------------------------------------------------
       (Rank from previous month)

     1 Dell, Inc.(2)              2.2%  11 Microsoft Corp.(7)          1.4%
     2 Gilead Sciences, Inc.(1)   1.8%  12 Annaly Capital
     3 Cisco Systems, Inc.(3)     1.8%      Management, Inc.(4)        1.3%
     4 Visa, Inc., Class A(5)     1.6%  13 JPMorgan Chase & Co.(15)    1.3%
     5 Apple, Inc.(11)            1.6%  14 Magna International, Inc.,
     6 J.C. Penney Co., Inc.(8)   1.6%      Class A(17)                1.2%
     7 Chesapeake Energy Corp.(6) 1.6%  15 Google, Inc., Class A(14)   1.2%
     8 Bank of America Corp.(10)  1.5%  16 Corning, Inc.(36)           1.1%
     9 QUALCOMM, Inc.(13)         1.4%  17 The Allstate Corp.(75)      1.1%
    10 Walgreen Co.(44)           1.4%  18 Teva Pharmaceutical
                                            Industries Ltd.(12)        1.1%
                                        19 International Business
                                            Machines Corp.(16)         1.1%
                                        20 Amazon.com, Inc.(20)        1.0%

       Holdings are subject to change
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     Sector Breakdown (% of portfolio)*    New Holdings
     --------------------------------      ------------
       Information Technology   27.6%      Aflac, Inc.
       Consumer Discretionary   15.9%      BMC Software, Inc.
       Financials               15.7%      The DIRECTV Group, Inc.
       Health Care              12.6%      McAfee, Inc.
       Energy                   11.3%      Zimmer Holdings, Inc.
       Industrials               6.8%
       Consumer Staples          5.5%      Holdings Liquidated
       Materials                 2.7%      -------------------
       Utilities                 1.9%      Amgen, Inc.
                               ------      Apollo Group, Inc., Class A
                               100.0%      Continental Airlines, Inc.
                                            (Convertible)
                                           Eli Lilly & Co.
                                           Exxon Mobil Corp.

      * Based on Standard & Poor's and MSCI Barra Global Industry
        Classification Standard (GICS).

        The Liberty All-Star Equity Fund is a closed-end fund and does not
        continuously offer shares.

Contact Information: Contact Information: Liberty All-Star Equity Fund 1-800-241-1850 www.all-starfunds.com