Edmond de Rothschild reveals job cuts as part of merger plan

The merger of Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management and Investment Management will result in the loss of 66 jobs by the end of the year, the French company has revealed.

The announcement means around 6% of the 1,000 people employed by the Edmond de Rothschild group will be made redundant as the merger plans progress. The process will take the form of voluntary redundancies, which began on October 13 and will be concluded on December 31.

A source with knowledge of the situation confirmed to Citywire Global that the job losses would be directly related to the merger of EDRAM and EDRIM but could not name which departments would be affected.

Plans to combine the asset management and investment management businesses, which oversee a total of €20 billion between them, were first announced in July, with the deal expected to be completed by the end of December 2012.

The move to unite the two arms of the business follows the departure of former EDRAM chairman of the board Philippe Couvrecelle earlier this year. Courvecelle’s replacement Christophe Boulanger, together with Guillaume Poli, head of the managing board at EDRIM, will oversee the merger.

At the time of the announcement, Citywire Global highlighted the host of Citywire Euro Stars and Citywire rated fund managers at EDRIM and EDRAM likely to be involved in the merger.

A French fund selector told Citywire Global he would expect some consolidation between both firm's multi-asset teams, as both EDRAM and EDRIM have a large number of managers in this area at present.