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Bloomberg
Societe Generale SA plans to cut as many as 700 jobs in Paris and eliminate hundreds more positions in London and New York after experiencing a difficult first-quarter in investment banking, people with knowledge of the matter said.
The French bank is speeding up staff reductions at its headquarters after tough trading conditions persisted into the new year and may announce the cuts as soon as next week, the people said, asking not to be identified as the matter is private. Bruno Benoit, head of the key fixed income and currencies trading unit, is among high-profile executives to leave the firm, they said.
The Paris-based lender is slashing 500 million euros ($567 million) of costs and reviewing less profitable investment-banking activities after surprising investors with a profit warning because of a market rout. UBS Group AG Chief Executive Officer Sergio Ermotti last month warned that the first quarter was one of the worst environments in recent history, while SocGen has said it sees no near-term improvement in market conditions.
SocGen shares extended losses, falling about 1.2 percent in Paris trading. They’re down about 4 percent this year, missing a rebound in the Europe Stoxx 600 banking index.
SocGen said in February that reductions would focus on some fixed-income and currencies activities. Jean-Francois Gregoire, the new head of SocGen’s global-markets business, has taken over Benoit’s functions at least on a temporary basis, the people said. SocGen declined to comment.
SocGen’s global banking and investor solutions unit has more than 20,000 employees. One of the bank’s main French labour unions said February 8 that the bank is bracing for significant cuts to trading jobs. Chief Executive Officer Frederic Oudea has said it’s too soon to comment on any headcount decisions.
Oudea reorganised his top management and hired senior traders from Bank of America Corp. last year to help reboot the global-markets business after the shock departure of investment-banking boss Didier Valet.