Twenty staff from Australian Unity's investments division have been made redundant, Australian Unity investments group executive David Bryant has confirmed.
"The reason for the change in resourcing is due to a number of factors, including revenues being different on the back of the last 12 months and the potential changes that will come into effect after next week's member vote on our merger with Lifeplan Funds Management (Lifeplan)," Bryant told InvestorDaily.
The decision to make 20 staff redundant came down to the number of resources the business anticipated it would need for the year ahead, he said.
"As our business continues to change and grow the types of resources we need for the period ahead also change," Bryant said.
While no more redundancies were expected in the investments division, Bryant said there were potential areas of duplication should the merger with Lifeplan go ahead.
Australian Unity corporate development group executive Kimina Lyall said there had been no other group redundancies at Australian Unity this year.
In the meantime, both the Australian Unity and Lifeplan boards have approved the merger of the two groups, with Lifeplan members scheduled to vote on 13 August in Adelaide.
The Australian Unity and Lifeplan merger would combine two of Australia's leading mutual companies and result in a diversified financial services group with anticipated funds under management of more than $7 billion.
