Matrix slashes broking arm in jobs bloodbath
THE City’s jobs bloodbath is threatening to decimate staff levels at smaller corporate finance firms this summer, industry sources warned yesterday.
Finance house Matrix Group placed most of its 93-person investment banking team under review with a view to retrenching them as it struggles to cover its costs.
Only its investment trusts, real estate and energy teams may stay, sources told City A.M., while others from financial services to consumer goods and services will be shut.
Malcolm Le May, who heads Matrix’s investment banking arm Matrix Corporate Capital, also tendered his resignation this week.
The situation mirrors the fall of Arbuthnot Securities – and high-level broking sources said many others were planning to cut staff.
“I think just about anybody else in the industry is considering doing the same,” one chief executive told City A.M., pointing to the next six weeks of summer when few deals will happen.
“It is a perfect storm in the UK,” Jonathan Keeling, chief executive of Arden Partners, said.
But several said changes to bonus regulation had caused hefty increases to fixed salaries that were making it hard for them to keep staff on.