Axa Investment Managers is in the process of making up to 90 staff in its investment and operations divisions redundant.
FTAdviser understands that the redundancies are due to recent market developments (such as interest rate increases) which have resulted in a decline in its asset base and negatively affected revenue.
A representative of the company said the changes would impact the core and the operations unit.
Core is the function within asset management which deals with all asset classes and products not deemed as alternative assets. The chief investment officer of this business is Chris Iggo.
The representative of the company said: “In order to enhance efficiency and safeguard its competitiveness, AXA IM Core plans to re-evaluate its organisation to further simplify it, enhance investment processes by incorporating data and technology further in portfolio management, and improve decision-making agility.
"This business unit would be restructured into four key functions: Investment, Product and Client Strategy, Core Client Group, and Transversal Services.”
They added: “In addition, the operations teams would also undergo changes as an extension of the evolutions undertaken over the past several years, primarily in the operations, project management and technology teams.
"This development would aim to optimise our services and increase quality, improve control over the full value chain and management of expenditures overall.”
Axa Investment Managers had 2,600 employees globally at the end of 2022, and these changes will impact up to 90 roles.
It comes more than a year after the company axed its regional sales representatives in favour of a “national approach” blaming changing client habits in the wake of the pandemic.
At the time, they said clients wanted more flexible and digital interactions with their fund managers.
The restructure took place in May 2022 and six months later AXA appointed Simon King as sales director for its UK wholesale business.
The company were unable to confirm how many of the roles which are under threat are among the teams in London.
The company added: “We will continue to hire talent, as well as maintaining our strategic investments carrying long-term growth and opportunities where critical skills are most required.
"We are committed to ensuring that this new organisation won’t impact our clients and should increase our ability to service them better and in a more efficient manner.
"These evolutions are presented in project mode and are conditional, as we are discussing the proposed changes with social partners in France and Germany.”
david.thorpe@ft.com, tara.o'connor@ft.com
