Skandia chief executive Andrew Black has been made redundant as a result of the recent acquisition of the business by IOOF Holdings.
Skandia head of retail distribution Wes Gillett was also made redundant this week, IOOF chief executive Tony Robinson told InvestorDaily.
“Andrew Black was made redundant last week and literally with these sorts of acquisitions we’re moving to bring that [Skandia] into the IOOF Group and make some early quick changes to help facilitate that,” he said.
“Obviously in doing that we don’t have a chance to get a sense of the individuals – these are just structural changes to help facilitate the integration of the business into the group.”
Robinson would not confirm if IOOF was looking to make more redundancies in the Skandia team.
“We’re not really making any comment at this stage other than we’re delighted with the acquisition of the Skandia business and it’s a wonderful opportunity for us to make a significant step forward,” he said.
“We think the products are good and well supported in the marketplace and we’re very keen to go and see those products develop and prosper and that’s the core goal in the integration process. And as I said we’ve made some decisions to help facilitate that integration process.”
Robinson would not confirm if these two redundancies were the only cuts IOOF has made to date as a result of the recent acquisition of the business.
“Again we’re just working through the process of understanding the business,” he said.
“We’ve just literally completed the acquisition. With these sorts of opportunities it’s important to move quickly to get control.”
