Pensions firm Just axes quarter of workforce months after takeover

A retirement specialist taken over this year by Brookfield Corporation, the Canadian investment giant, is axing a quarter of its workforce less than six months after the completion of the £2.4bn deal.

Sky News has learnt that Just Group has initiated a consultation with about 500 employees about a redundancy programme which is expected to result in the loss of more than 300 jobs.

It is the second wave of job losses since Brookfield took Just Group private, with about 150 roles being cut in May.

City sources said that in total, roughly 30% of the company's workforce will have been let go by the time the latest round of cuts takes effect.

Just, which is run by interim chief executive Pretty Sagoo following the departure of David Richardson, has about 700,000 customers and oversees roughly £30bn in pension savings.

It offers a range of retail retirement solutions and is a player in the pension risk transfer market, in which companies offload their pension obligations to specialist insurers.

In recent weeks, a number of British-based insurers have announced redundancy programmes, with Legal & General culling 1,000 jobs - equivalent to a tenth of its workforce.

In a regulatory filing immediately after the takeover, Brookfield flagged that it would explore "the implementation of cost-management measures, which could include headcount reductions materially beyond those described [previously]", but did not quantify the scale of the potential redundancies.

Just's new owner has said that it intends to focus on growing its core insurance business, rather than pursuing a strategy of growing its retail annuity business that was developed under Mr Richardson.

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The company has brought in the City grandee Sir Nigel Wilson as its chairman as it seeks to reorient itself.

Sir Nigel, who spent more than a decade as chief executive of L&G, also chairs Brookfield-backed Canary Wharf Group.

One insider said the latest wave of cuts would bring Just Group's cost base more closely into line with its industry peers.

They said there was "a clear path" to building the business into a leading UK retirement business that would serve more customers, write more business and invest greater amounts of capital over time.

The areas of greatest potential for Just to grow, they said, were in the PRT and retail retirement solutions markets.

Under Brookfield's ownership, Just is expected to target investment in 'productive' UK assets such as infrastructure, renewable energy and social housing, in an attempt to support long-term obligations to policy-holders while also contributing to UK economic growth.

One insider said that in order to achieve these objectives, the company needed to be "structured for growth".

Brookfield and Just Group declined to comment.

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