The finance industry was hit by more redundancies yesterday, as HSBC James Capel Asia said it was laying off one in 12 of its regional staff to restructure its businesses on a sectoral basis from its present country basis.
Separately, UBS Securities (East Asia) confirmed that managing director Simon Hayes had quit the firm after just 7.5 months.
HSBC James Capel spokesman Saw Choo Dickson said: 'The driving force [for the staff cuts] is the move to a sector-based approach . . . It is not a cost-cutting exercise at all.' About 27 staff will lose their jobs out of a total of about 380. In Hong Kong, where the institutional equity sales unit of HSBC Investment Bank employs 180 people, 10 staff will be leaving.
'It's partly in response to what our customers want. The fund management industry is increasingly focusing on sectors, not regions,' Ms Dickson said. 'Sector-based approaches are leaner operations.' The firm declined to give a figure for estimated savings from the smaller payroll, but said the reductions would be made in equity research and sales positions. Some of the 350 remaining staff have had their salaries and bonuses reduced, Ms Dickson said.
'We found that the market capitalisations [in some Asian centres] have dropped and we don't need so many people,' she said, mentioning Indonesia, where the Jakarta Composite Index has shed 25 per cent in the past year.
HSBC James Capel European's operations have already been organised by sector and the Asian revamp had been planned for some time, Ms Dickson said.