CME
With CME Group Inc (CME.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) set to wrap up its NYMEX Holdings Inc (NMX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) takeover on Friday, staff at the New York energy and metals market are bracing for an acceleration of job cuts NYMEX foreshadowed late last year.
CME, the world’s largest derivatives exchange, won shareholder approval this week for the acquisition, thanks in large part to a pledge of $60 million in cost savings.
The Chicago exchange has been coy on what that means for the nearly 400 staff at NYMEX, but CME Chief Executive Craig Donohue told Reuters last month he expects “head count reductions, because there will be some redundancies between the two companies.”
Diego Perfumo, analyst at Equity Research Desk, pegged the likely number of job cuts at 176, or about 45 percent of the New York workforce, based on a breakdown of CME’s projections and NYMEX’s expenses.
“I think, though, that synergies were understated,” Perfumo said payday loans. “So the 176 most likely will be higher.”
The New York Mercantile Exchange operator unveiled an “Enterprise Efficiency Plan” last year meant to drive down costs as it moved from traditional open-outcry trading on its floor to an increasingly electronic platform.
“NYMEX will reduce its current workforce by approximately 120 positions over the next five quarters, or $10 million on an annual basis, beginning immediately with 55 positions, and continuing through 2008,” the company said on November 1.
NYMEX had expected to conclude the cost cutting this year.
Filed under: technology by Pascal