Hong Kong insurer FWD Group cuts around 50 jobs – sources

By Scott Murdoch and Selena Li

SYDNEY (Reuters) -Asia-focused insurer FWD Group has cut around 50 jobs in its head offices this week, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

The job cuts took place mainly in Hong Kong and Singapore, added one of the sources. The two sources requested not to be identified as the information has not been made public.

“Like all successful companies, we routinely review and adjust our head office resources to ensure we have an appropriately skilled and sized team to support our fast-growing pan Asian business,” an emailed statement from FWD Group to Reuters said on Friday.

The insurer hopes to become “profitable sustainably” in the next 12 months via the cost cutting, the second source said, suggesting a shift of strategy from a previous focus on expansion and growth to self-sustained profitability.

FWD declined to comment further.

FWD is controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li who founded the insurance group in 2013.

The cuts come amid a major consolidation in Hong Kong’s financial services sector in the past year, as the city’s investment banks battle a major downturn in capital markets and corporate buyout activity.

Hundreds of jobs have been cut among the major bulge bracket banks as Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO) volumes fell to the lowest level in more than 10 years due to higher interest rates and ongoing global political tensions.

FWD has attempted an IPO in New York and Hong Kong over the past two years but has not been able to carry out a deal.

The firm has raised almost $1.8 billion in private funding rounds in that time.

Its latest IPO filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange expired in September and has not been renewed.

Reuters reported on Thursday, citing sources, that Li’s Pacific Century group is seeking to sell its majority stake in asset manager PineBridge Investments.

FWD Group is a pan-Asian life insurance business with more than 11 million customers across 10 markets, according to its website.