Goodbody Stockbrokers preparing to cut up to 20 posts

Goodbody Stockbrokers is planning to lay off about 20 employees, according to sources, marking its biggest jobs cut since the company was acquired five years ago by financial services firm Fexco.

The job cuts, equivalent to about 6.5 per cent of the workforce, will be mainly focused on the wealth management business, which is being restructured and repositioned.

It will affect people directly involved in wealth management and related support and administrative staff.

Torrid start

The wealth management industry has had a torrid start to the year globally as rich investors have stuck to the sidelines amid slowing growth in China, volatile prices for stocks and commodities and, closer to home, fears over Brexit and a period of political uncertainty after the general election.

It is understood that the Goodbody Stockbrokers’ redundancies will be targeted, rather than offered across the board. Wealth management accounts for about half of the firm’s more than 300 employees. The company continues to hire in other areas.

A spokesman for Goodbody Stockbrokers in Ballsbridge, Dublin, declined to comment.

News of the redundancies comes six weeks after it emerged that Goodbody management and staff had doubled their stake in the firm since the Fexco takeover, to 49 per cent, helped by a bumper year in 2015 for share trading and corporate deals fees.

Targets

The ownership increase resulted from the company reaching maximum incentive targets set at the time of the takeover.

It appeared initially that these wouldn’t be met as the stockbroker remained loss-making in the early years following the transaction with Killorglin, Co Kerry-based Fexco.

Growth in share trading activity has slowed down so far this year on the Irish Stock Exchange, while the initial public offerings market has effectively dried up. Assets under management at Goodbody Stockbroker's wealth management division have about doubled since 2011 to about €7 billion.

Fexco bought control of Goodbody Stockbrokers in January 2011 in a €24 million deal. The value of the company has increased to more than €100 million, sources said last month.