Reuters announces plan to shed 3,000 jobs

News and information group Reuters unveiled plans to shed another 3,000 jobs today after enduring the worst year in its 151-year history.

The group posted losses of almost £500m (€743m) and offered little sign of a respite from the conditions which have ravaged its annual figures.

Reuters has cut more than 2,000 jobs in the last 18 months.

It said the process would continue through a fresh restructuring plan.

That will take global head count from 16,000 to 13,000 by the end of 2005.

The group wants its cost base “significantly smaller” and will largely achieve this through more focused product lines and a single technology platform.

Reuters, which employs 9,000 people in Europe, has not specified where the job cuts will be, although it is thought many will relate to “back-office” work.

Today’s bottom-line losses for the year to December 31 compare with profits of £158m (€234m) a year earlier and represent the group’s first loss since listing as a public company in 1984. It is also the worst in its history.

Heavy, one-off finance charges at the group’s electronic trading arm Instinet, which recorded losses caused the sizeable fall into the red.

But revenues also slumped 8% as banking and financial-based customers of Reuters reduced staff numbers and kept a tight control on costs during the current stock market slowdown.

The gloomy outlook further upset the company’s share price, which fell 12% to 135p after peaking at 1135p in 2001.

Chief executive Tom Glocer said he was confident the new strategy – called Fast Forward – would meet the challenge of tough market conditions, but said there was still much to do. The plan builds on a five-year turnaround strategy announced 18 months ago.