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City staff fear Black Rock axe
Gideon Spanier27 Nov 2008
Black Rock, the asset management firm that is 49% owned by Merrill Lynch, is set to axe more than 200 jobs - the first time it has had to make major redundancies in its 20-year history.
It is feared dozens of jobs will be lost in London which is the HQ for its 1400-strong workforce in Europe, the Middle East and Africa - a quarter of its global staff of 5500 people.
Black Rock has already sacked at least 20 staff recently, including more than 4% in its Australian offices.
A spokesman declined to comment on the scale of the cuts but said: "We continue to invest in building a global platform and remain fully committed to the 'One Black Rock' business model."
Black Rock managed $1.26 trillion (£81.6 billion) in assets at the end of September, down from $1.43 trillion at the end of June.
Other asset management firms are also making deep cuts. Fidelity Investments is to slash 3000 jobs by early 2009.
