Daiwa Securities Group Inc.'s Hong Kong unit cut 10 percent of its workers this week, taking the major brokerage a step closer to meeting its cost-cutting targets.
Daiwa Capital Markets Hong Kong Ltd. eliminated 60 of its 600 positions, Chief Operating Officer Terence Mackey said Thursday. Cuts were made across all departments, he said.
The parent firm said in January it plans to reduce 200 jobs overseas after posting a fourth straight quarterly loss on lower trading income and brokerage commissions. The Tokyo-based firm joined Nomura Holdings Inc. in seeking to trim employee expenses, reversing plans to expand as Europe's debt crisis roils markets.
Daiwa Securities posted a net loss of ¥21.6 billion for the three months that ended Dec. 31, compared with a profit of ¥1.2 billion a year earlier. The firm ranked 30th in advising firms listing in Hong Kong last year, data complied by Bloomberg show.
Asian financial firms are curtailing costs as the contagion from Europe's sovereign debt crisis, which has forced global rivals to announce more than 230,000 job cuts in the past year, spreads to the region.
Daiwa CEO Takashi Hibino, who took the post last April, is cutting jobs in Europe and Asia and trimming executive pay.