Online trading firm CMC Capital Markets has announced a restructure which will result in a change of leadership in its profitable Australian division and an unspecified number of redundancies among its support staff.
CMC, whose Australian division posted a profit of $20.6 million in its last fiscal year, largely on the success of its CFD (contracts for difference) products, has decided to centralise support and back-office functions in its London headquarters.
David Trew, who helped found the Australian business in 2002, is stepping down as head of CMC Asia Pacific, while recently appointed Asia Pacific chief operating officer Barry Odes will become head of Australia and New Zealand in a restructure that will see individual country heads report straight back to head office.
Staff were told of the changes and the redundancies were flagged at meetings in Sydney today. The company has not confirmed how many of the 240 staff in Australia will be made redundant.
Odes joined the company in June from Goldman Sachs JBWere, where he worked as the chief operating officer of its private wealth management division. Goldman Sachs has a 10 per cent stake in CMC.
The Australian division – which posted record trading volumes of $US41 billion in October, compared to an average of $US28 billion over the previous six months – contributes nearly one third of the group’s revenues and profits and is considered to be the most successful of its overseas operations.
