Thomson Reuters said it would slash 3,000 jobs in its finance operations, after reporting a drop in profits. The cuts, mentioned in documents accompanying its third quarterly result, are in addition to the 1,000 job cuts the company announced earlier this year.
The company said it would incur a $350m (£218m, €254m) charge to speed up a cost-saving plan, which included eliminating approximately 3,000 positions, primarily in Financial & Risk.
That figure is in addition to the $100m charge it took earlier in the year to do away with 1,000 positions. The two rounds of job cuts and the jobs eliminated from attrition and divestitures would reduce Thomson Reuters’ workforce by about 9%.
The firm also said it would make contributions worth about $500m to its UK and US defined benefit pension plans this quarter. The firm reported a 37% drop in third quarter net income to $283m, which includes results from businesses in the quarter a year previously, that have been divested.
Thomson Reuters’ stock was trading 2.43% higher to $36.60 in New York. The company’s shares have gained more than 29% over the past year. “The era of portfolio churning has come to an end,” chief executive Jim Smith said in an interview. “I think everybody in the world is trying to do more with less,” he said. “I don’t think the pressure on costs and keeping them under control is going to lessen. That said, what I hope is this strategy gives us a more predictable path in the future.”
During the third quarter, Thomson Reuters repurchased about 2.9 million shares for about $100m. It proposes to buy back shares worth up to $1bn by the end of 2014.
Source: ibtimes.co.uk
