A person familiar with the process reported that the second-largest bank by assets in the U.K. – Barclays Plc plans to start cutting 100 jobs across its investment-banking and markets units in Asia and the Pacific until the end of the week. Recently, the British lender shared that it plans to reduce the number of its employees working in the investment-bank divisions all over the world and reshuffle its operations that are situated in Asia.
The fund manager working for Philip Capital Management Mr. Louis Wong commented the lay-offs in a telephone interview for Bloomberg today: “Job cuts in Asia will continue. Banks in Asia are experiencing slower growth in emerging markets and cost-cutting is one major way to boost their return on equity, similar to what the global banks have done in matured markets.”
According to a person with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified because the information about the lay-offs is private, the lay-offs are equal to about 5% of the total number of employees of Barclays investment bank operations in the Asia-Pacific region.
The news of the job cuts comes at a moment when Barclays Plc has just appointed Mrs. Vanessa Koo at the position of head of mergers and acquisitions in the region of Asia and the Pacific. Mrs. Koo is going to replace the former chief of the division – Mr. Ed King, who has been relocated to the U.S.
As reported by Bloomberg, one of the Hong-Kong-located spokesmen of Barclays Plc – Mr. Timothy Cuffe commented on the firms decision to cut 100 jobs in the region, saying: “We are not exiting any of the 11 countries we currently operate in throughout the region. We will target growth in key areas of strength and scale for the bank.”
Barclays Plc was losing 0.50% to trade at 244.87 pence per share by 9:24 GMT, marking a one year change of -16.40%. According to the information published on the Financial Times, the 27 analysts offering 12-month price targets for Barclays Plc have a median target of 295.00, with a high estimate of 365.00 and a low estimate of 203.22. The median estimate represents a 19.87% increase from the last price of 246.10.
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