Cathay Pacific has announced it will cut nearly 600 jobs as part of the biggest restructuring in 20 years.
The cuts include 190 management jobs and 400 non-management staff working at Cathay Pacific’s head office in Hong Kong.
In March, the Hong Kong’s flagship carrier said it would save 30% in employee costs at its head office after the company posted its first annual loss in eight years.
The cuts are part of a three year program to turn around the losses.
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Cathay Pacific said in a statement that the job cuts would be complete by the end of the year, with most of the affected employees to be informed on May 22, and over the next month.
The changes will be overseen by Cathay Pacific’s new chief executive, Rupert Hogg, who replaced Ivan Chu Kwok-leung earlier this month.
Rupert Hogg cited increasing competition and a challenging business outlook for what he called “tough but necessary decisions for the future of our business and our customers”.
Cathay has been facing tough competition from Chinese and Middle Eastern airlines that have expanded rapidly in the Asia Pacific region.
Earlier this year, Cathay posted a net loss of HK$575 million ($74 million) for 2016. It was only the third time Cathay Pacific posted a full-year loss in its 70 year history.
Bombardier has announced it will cut about 7,000 jobs worldwide over the next two years.
Job losses will be partially offset by hiring for the production of Bombardier’s CSeries commercial jets, the company said.
Bombardier said it had made a net loss of $5.3 billion in 2015, and had revenues of $18.2 billion – 10% lower than the year before.
Bombardier also forecast lower revenues for 2016, saying it expects to generate between $16.5 billion and $17.5 billion.
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The 7,000 posts to be cut will include 2,000 contractors, and will fall mainly on the transportation and aerostructure parts of the business.
The Canadian plane and train maker said it had signed a letter of intent with Air Canada for up to 75 CS300 aircraft for as much as $3.8 billion, based on the list price.
Bombardier has been helped by recent cash infusions from the Quebec pension fund, Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec, and the Quebec provincial government.
Schlumberger has cut 10,000 jobs in Q4 of 2015 amid the plunge in oil prices.
News of the near-10% jobs cull came as the oilfield services giant unveiled a net loss for the last three months of $1 billion – its first quarterly loss in 12 years.
Schlumberger’s revenues fell 39% to $7.74 billion, with CEO Paal Kibsgaard warning that there was “no signs” of an oil price recovery on the horizon.
The company also announced a $10 billion share buy-back program.
This news pushed Schlumberger’s shares 4% higher in after-hours trading. The stock price fell almost 20% is 2015 as investor worried that customers were cancelling projects as the oil price tumbled.
The profit figures were better than many analysts had expected, helped by heavy cuts to offset the slump in oil prices.
The latest job cuts added to the 20,000 redundancies Schlumberger had already announced earlier in 2015.
Paal Kibsgaard warned that there were “no signs of pricing recovery in the short to medium term”.
“Negative market sentiments intensified in the fourth quarter, with oil over-production continuing and extending the bearish trend in global inventories,” Schlumberger said in its report.
The dramatic fall in prices “prompted customers to make further cuts to already significantly lower investment levels,” the company said, pointing to “unscheduled and abrupt activity cancellations.”
Oil prices have dipped below $28 a barrel in a drawn-out slump since mid-2014.
Many analysts have slashed their 2016 oil price forecasts, with Morgan Stanley analysts saying that “oil in the $20s is possible”.
Economists at the Royal Bank of Scotland say that oil could fall to $16, while Standard Chartered predicts that prices could hit just $10 a barrel.
General Electric has announced it is planning to cut up to 6,500 jobs in energy units it bought from French engineering giant Alstom over the next two years.
The figure includes 765 jobs to go in France.
To secure the deal last year, GE had soothed French government concerns by pledging to create 1,000 jobs in the country.
A GE spokesman said the company would stick to its pledge, creating the roles in the next three years.
In Europe as a whole, staff in Alstom’s renewables, power services and energy management divisions could be affected.
A spokesman said unions had been informed.
“This is a plan, which could change following discussion with employee representatives,” he added.
Around 1,300 of the layoffs will be in Switzerland, the company said.
In May 2015, GE pledged to create jobs in France as part of efforts to calm French government concerns about the company’s proposed acquisition of Alstom’s energy units.
At the time, both GE and Siemens were in talks with the French government to try to secure a deal.
The French government had previously given itself powers to block foreign takeover bids for companies deemed “strategic”.
GE’s takeover of Alstom’s energy business – which includes gas and steam turbines, wind turbines, turbines for hydro dams and power grids – added about 65,000 employees to GE’s workforce of about 305,000.
The head of GE’s power division said in September 2015 the company would seek to make $3 billion in cost savings over five years from the Alstom acquisition.
Standard Chartered bank is to cut 15,000 jobs and raise $5.1 billion to create a “lean, focused and well-capitalized” group.
About $3 billion being raised in the rights issue will cover reorganization costs.
The remainder will be used to strengthen the bank’s balance sheet.
The restructuring was announced as Standard Chartered reported a “disappointing” pre-tax loss of $139 million in Q3 of 2015.
That compared with a profit of $1.5 billion for the same period of 2014.
Revenue fell 18.4% to $3.68 billion and losses on bad loans almost doubled to $1.23 billion for Q3 of 2015.
The job cuts are part of a restructuring program to take place over the next three years.
Standard Chartered gave few details about the staff reductions, but the figure could include businesses it plans to sell. It employs 86,000 people.
Bill Winters announced a strategic review of Standard Chartered when he took over as chief executive in June.
He put a new management team in place the following month and analysts had been expecting the bank to seek additional capital to shore up its balance sheet.
Bill Winters acknowledged the challenging business environment facing the bank.
“This is … an aggressive and decisive set of actions to fundamentally shore up the underpinnings of the bank,” he said on a conference call.
Standard Chartered shares fell more than 6% in early trading in London and by 3.2% in Hong Kong.
The bank has already shed some businesses, in Hong Kong, China and Korea, to help improve its capital position.
Among the plans announced on November 3, Standard Chartered said it would invest more than $1 billion to reposition its retail banking, private banking and wealth management businesses, as well as upgrade its Africa franchise and yuan services.
The rights issue had the backing of Temasek, Singapore’s state investment company and Standard Chartered’s largest shareholder.
Hugh Young, managing director at Aberdeen Asset Management, the bank’s second-biggest shareholder, said: “[There is] still a lot of hard work to put in but the path is clear.”
The rights issue, Standard Chartered’s first since 2010, will be launched on November 3 at a price of 465p a share – a 35% discount to its closing price on November 2. Two new shares will be issued for every seven existing shares.
Standard Chartered has also axed the final dividend for 2015 to conserve cash.
Germany’s biggest bank, Deutsche Bank, has announced a 15,000 job cuts after a €6 billion loss in Q3 of 2015.
The bank said it would cut 9,000 full-time jobs and 6,000 contractor roles.
Deutsche Bank is also planning to sell businesses employing 20,000 people over the next two years.
By 2018, “we expect to see the benefits of our hard work and potentially be in the midst of a powerful turn-around,” said John Cryan, co-chief executive.
The cuts represent just less than 15% of the firm’s total workforce.
Deutsche Bank’s shares fell 5.5% in Frankfurt trading on October 29.
The bank is trying to cut €3.8 billion of annual costs as European banks struggle with sluggish economic growth in their home markets and stricter regulation.
In times of low growth, reducing costs through job cuts is seen as a way to improve profits.
Deutsche Bank also plans to spin off Postbank with a stock market listing and sell its 20% stake in China’s Hua Xia Bank.
It has also said it will stop dividend payments for 2015 and 2016.
John Cryan told a news conference that the bank faced “hard decisions” as it was restructured.
“We must reduce Deutsche Bank’s complexity,” he added.
Deutsche Bank said it would close businesses in Malta, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Finland, Peru, Uruguay, Denmark, Norway, and New Zealand. Some branches in Germany would close as well, John Cryan said.
The third-quarter loss was caused by more than €5.8 billion of charges in write downs and legal expenses at its investment bank and on assets it wants to sell, as well as higher litigation charges.
Of the 9,000 full-time job cuts, about 4,000 will take place in Germany.
Deutsche Bank employed 98,000 people as of the end of 2014, according to its annual report.
Construction and mining equipment maker Caterpillar has announced it could cut its workforce by more than 10,000 by 2018.
The US-based company – which employs more than 126,000 worldwide – said it would cut up to 5,000 jobs by the end of 2016.
Caterpillar is looking to reduce annual costs by $1.5 billion by the end of 2016.
The company has been hit by the collapse of commodity prices which have affected its key customers in the mining and energy sectors.
It has reduced its revenue forecast for this year by 2% to $48 billion and says 2016 earnings will fall 5%.
It will be first time in Caterpillar’s 90 year history that sales revenues have fallen for four years in a row.
Caterpillar shares were the biggest faller on the Dow Jones index on September 24, losing almost 6% as the market opened.
Doug Oberhelman, Caterpillar chairman and chief executive, said: “We are facing a convergence of challenging marketplace conditions in key regions and industry sectors – namely in mining and energy.”
The company has reduced its total workforce by more than 31,000 since mid-2012.
Caterpillar warned there could be a “total possible workforce reduction of more than 10,000 people” and said it expected to close some 20 manufacturing facilities over the next three years.
Doug Oberhelman said: “While we’ve already made substantial adjustments as these market conditions have emerged, we are taking even more decisive actions now.
“We don’t make these decisions lightly, but I’m confident these additional steps will better position Caterpillar to deliver solid results when demand improves.”
Hewlett-Packard is planning to cut between 25,000 and 30,000 jobs, the company has announced.
The move is part of an effort to split Hewlett-Packard into two units, which is set to take place in November.
The losses will come in Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which is splitting from the company’s printer and personal computer business.
The tech company says the cuts will save it $2.7 billion in annual costs, but it will take a $2.7 billion charge to execute the plan.
At a meeting for Wall Street analysts, chairman and chief executive Meg Whitman said: “We’ve done a significant amount of work over the past few years to take costs out and simplify processes and these final actions will eliminate the need for any future corporate restructuring.”
The company has struggled over the last decade to keep up with changing demands as customers move away from desktop computers.
HP already plans to lay off 55,000 employees as part of the restructuring process that started in 2012.
British bank HSBC is planning to cut 8,000 jobs in the UK as it tries to reduce costs and simplify its business.
Europe’s biggest bank has 48,000 workers in the UK and will make cuts in both its retail and investment banking operations.
A total of 25,000 jobs could be axed worldwide, meaning close to 10% of HSBC’s 266,000 workers will go.
HSBC will also ring-fence its UK operations and sell businesses in Turkey and Brazil, it said on June 9.
The news comes ahead of a presentation that HSBC CEO Stuart Gulliver will give to investors and analysts in his second major strategy plan since taking up the role in 2011.
In a statement, Stuart Gulliver said: “We recognize that the world has changed and we need to change with it. That is why we are outlining the following… strategic actions that will further transform our organization.”
The 10-point plan aims to cut costs by up to $5 billion and increase investment in Asia – particularly in China.
Stuart Gulliver: “Asia [is] expected to show high growth and become the centre of global trade over the next decade.
“Our actions will allow us to capture expected future growth opportunities.”
HSBC’s Hong Kong-listed shares rose almost 1% following the announcement, but remain down 9% over the past 12 months.
The bank said it would make a decision on whether to move its headquarters out of the UK by the end of the year.
There has been speculation that HSBC may relocate its headquarters to Hong Kong since it announced the review in April.
eBay is planning to cut 2,400 jobs in Q1 2015, the e-commerce giant announced on January 21.
The company’s decision to cut about 7% of its workforce comes ahead of a plan to split from its online payment PayPal business this year.
eBay made the announcement in its fourth quarter earnings report, which had topped expectations on Wall Street.
It said in a statement it wanted to refocus the businesses and ensure it was “set-up to compete and win”.
The job cuts will range across its eBay Marketplaces, PayPal, and eBay Enterprise units.
The tech giant also said it has made an agreement with activist investor, Carl Icahn, to give investors a greater say in its PayPal business once it is spun off in the second half of this year.
The billionaire investor had been trying to gather support for the proposed split before the company’s annual shareholder meeting in May last year.
eBay also announced that it was considering a sale or public offering of its enterprise unit.
Amid the business shake up, eBay forecast earnings between 68 cents and 71 cents a share in the first quarter, while revenue was expected to hit $4.35 billion to $4.45 billion. Both forecasts fell short of market expectations.
Its profit in Q4 2014 rose to $936 million on $4.9 billion in revenue.
eBay’s New York listed shares rose 2.6% in after-hours trade.
Rolls-Royce has announced it is planning to cut 2,600 jobs over the next 18 months.
The company said most of the jobs would go in its aerospace division, with most of the posts being shed in 2015.
It is not clear where the cuts will be made from Rolls-Royce’s global workforce of 55,000, 24,000 of whom are in the UK.
The company’s chief executive John Rishton said: “The measures announced today will not be the last, however they will contribute towards Rolls-Royce becoming a stronger and more profitable company.”
Last month, Rolls warned that its underlying revenues for 2014 would be 3.5-to-4% lower than expected.
Rolls-Royce has announced it is planning to cut 2,600 jobs over the next 18 months
The company said voluntary redundancy would be offered, although it could not rule out compulsory redundancies.
The company’s UK staff are employed at four locations in the East Midlands, as well as 1,500 at five sites in the North West and 2,400 employees at six locations across Scotland.
The two largest sites are in Bristol and Derby.
Rolls-Royce said it had become more efficient, and cited the fact a large engineering team, needed for the development phase of two Trent engines, were no longer needed as both these were now in production.
That would point to job losses in Derby, where the Trent engines, used by many international airlines, are built.
Rolls-Royce is the second largest aero-engine maker in the world.
The company has customers in more than 120 countries, including more than 380 airlines and leasing firms, 160 armed forces, 4,000 marine customers including 70 navies, and 1,600 energy and nuclear customers.
Microsoft has announced it will cut up to 18,000 jobs marking the deepest cuts in the company’s 39-year history.
The bulk of the cuts, around 12,500, will be in its phone unit Nokia, which Microsoft bought in April, the tech giant said.
Microsoft pledged to cut $600 million per year in costs within 18 months of closing the acquisition.
The cuts are much more severe than the 6,000 initially expected.
Microsoft employs 127,000 globally.
Microsoft will cut up to 18,000 jobs marking the deepest cuts in the company’s 39-year history
Chief executive officer Satya Nadella, who took the helm in February, wants the company to shift its focus away from software to online services, apps and devices.
“Making these decisions to change are difficult, but necessary,” Satya Nadella wrote in the announcement to staff.
Microsoft said it also planned to have fewer layers of management “to accelerate the flow of information and decision making.”
The company said staff affected by the job cuts would be notified over the next six months, and they would be “fully completed” by the end of June next year.
In total it said the cuts, including severance pay, would cost it between $1.1 billion to $1.6 billion over the next year.
Last week, Satya Nadella rebranded the company as “the productivity and platform company for the mobile-first and cloud-first world”.
The cuts are aimed at helping Microsoft better compete with rivals including Google and Apple.
The last significant job cuts at Microsoft were in early 2009, when previous chief executive Steve Ballmer axed 5,800 staff.
Hewlett-Packard (HP) announced an 18% rise in profits to $1.3 billion for the second quarter in a statement that was accidently released before US stock markets closed.
The tech giant said that despite rising profits, it plans to lay off an additional 11,000 to 16,000 workers.
HP had previously announced it would cut 34,000 jobs as part of a restructuring announced in 2012.
HP said that despite rising profits, it plans to lay off an additional 11,000 to 16,000 workers
Shares in HP fell after the early release of the news.
HP CEO Meg Whitman said in a statement: “I’m pleased to report that HP’s turnaround remains on track.”
“We’re gradually shaping HP into a more nimble, lower-cost, more customer- and partner-centric company.”
However, analysts were disappointed by HP’s revenue growth, which fell 1% from the same period a year ago to $27.3 billion.
HP has been hit hard by declining PC sales as consumers shift towards devices such as tablets and smartphones.
Meg Whitman has tried to shift the firm’s focus to computing equipment and networking gear for business clients.
HP began a restructuring plan in 2012 that was designed to simplify the company’s business processes, accelerate innovation, lower costs and deliver better results.
Meg Whitman said the turnaround remains on track, and added: “With each passing quarter, HP is improving its systems, structures and core go-to-market capabilities.
“We’re gradually shaping HP into a more nimble, lower-cost, more customer- and partner-centric company that can successfully compete across a rapidly changing IT landscape.”
HP has not specified when it expects to see the full results of its restructuring strategy. But analysts are suggesting the company should probably take a closer look at its product mix.
HP’s personal systems division was the only segment that showed a gain in revenue in the second quarter. Other divisions, namely printing as well as enterprise group and services posted a drop in revenue.
The decline in revenue is one of the main reasons HP is cutting jobs.
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