Wednesday 18 January 2012

Northern Trust 4Q Profit Falls 17% cut 700 jobs

Northern Trust Corp., which has been under pressure by Wall Street to cut costs, said it plans to cut about 700 jobs worldwide.


In its first major round of layoffs in years, the Chicago area's biggest locally headquartered bank said Wednesday that additional positions will be eliminated through attrition.


The stock of the Chicago-based financial services provider to the wealthy and to institutions is down 23 percent since the beginning of 2011.


Of the 700 layoffs, about half are in Europe. Most of the affected employees were told during the third and fourth quarters of 2011 that their positions might be eliminated, a Northern spokesman said. Most of those cuts are associated with a charge against earnings that Northern took in the second quarter.


Northern Trust, which provides investment management and other services to affluent people and institutions, reported a profit of $130.2 million, or 53 cents a share, down from $157.1 million, or 64 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding benefits related to a settlement with Visa (V) in both periods, earnings declined to 50 cents from 59 cents. The latest period also included restructuring, acquisition and integration-related charges of 17 cents.


Revenue increased 6.6% to $955.6 million, including $38.4 million from acquisitions.


Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters most recently projected earnings of 68 cents on revenue of $970 million.


Foreign-exchange trading revenue declined 27% to $71.7 million.


Total assets under management were up at $662.9 billion from $643.6 billion a year earlier and $644.2 billion in the third quarter. The provision for credit losses fell to $12.5 million from $40 million a year earlier and $17.5 million in the third quarter.


Shares closed Tuesday at $41.93 and were inactive premarket. The stock is down roughly 25% in the past year.

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