Aviva Investors to cut 6 percent of global staff

By Chris Vellacott and Simon Jessop

LONDON (Reuters) - Aviva Investors, the funds arm of British-based insurer Aviva is cutting 6 percent of its global staff, including a number of senior managers as part of a restructuring.

Among the approximately 60 staff leaving the firm are the head of credit Mark Wauton and the head of equity solutions Iyad Farah, two sources close to the company said.

Dinesh Pawar, who is a manager in the credit team is also leaving, one of the sources said.

Emails to all three people received automatic responses saying they were out of the office and calls to their desks went unanswered.

 

Aviva Investors said in an emailed statement the company wants to improve profitability by concentrating on core, long-term investment strategies.

"We have had to give the difficult message to some of our colleagues that they will be leaving the business and we have spoken to those affected," the company said.

The restructuring is part of a group wide shake-up of Aviva being pushed through by Chief Executive Mark Wilson who took over at the start of 2013.

In July Aviva appointed Euan Munro from rival Standard Life as chief executive of Aviva Investors, and he is due to take up his post in January 2014.

A third source at the group said Munro will have a remit to make the division's investments simpler and increase the proportion of funds managed on behalf of external clients as opposed to Aviva's own insurance and pensions assets.

Wilson, formerly head of Asian rival AIA Group Ltd <1299.HK> joined in the wake of an investor revolt in 2012 which had led to the departure of his predecessor.

Earlier this year Aviva revealed it would cut 2,000 jobs across the company, which has operations in Canada, Europe and Asia.

(Additional reporting by Natalie Harrison; Editing by Tommy Wilkes and Elaine Hardcastle)