Rathbone Brothers sheds 58 jobs in Glasgow

MORE than 50 jobs are being shed at wealth manager Rathbones in Glasgow after its acquisition of

Speirs & Jeffrey.

The 58 jobs were described as back office roles that were duplicated with the 2018 acquisition and the London-based company is continuing to recruit for a number of roles in Scotland.

Pre-tax profit in the preliminary 2019 results dropped significantly with costs associated to the acquisition of the Glasgow firm, Rathbones said in a London Stock Exchange statement.

It added that total funds under management and administration “passed a significant milestone”.

It said that “planned reductions in headcount following the successful integration of Speirs & Jeffrey into the group will take effect in early 2020”.

It also said staff costs rose by 15.4 per cent to £110.8 million and Speirs & Jeffrey contributed £6.8m of this increase, adding that across the firm headcount increased by 13.5% to 1,509.

Mark Nicholls, Rathbone Brothers’ chairman, said: “2019 may well be remembered for political reasons more than any other, but investment markets finished the end of the year strongly.

“Our own funds under management and administration increased 14.3% to £50.4 billion, up from £44.1bn on December 31, 2018, as we continued to focus on providing a quality service to our clients and worked hard to bring

Speirs & Jeffrey fully into Rathbones.

“Profit before tax for the year totalled £39.7m – against £61.3m in 2018 – and reflects anticipated costs associated with the acquisition of Speirs & Jeffrey.” Underlying profit totalled £88.7m, against £91.6m. The £104m acquisition made Rathbones the largest independent wealth manager in Scotland.