Citigroup to cut 52,000 additional jobs

Citigroup has revealed plans to cut 52,000 jobs on top of the 22,000 staff reductions announced in October. The moves will reduce Citigroup's head count from a high of 375,000 in 2007 to 300,000 now as CEO Vikram Pandit struggles to get the US banking group back on track amid massive losses and a record low share price.

New York-based Citigroup reported a $2.8 bn loss for the third quarter of 2008, its four quarterly loss in a row. Pandit outlined his plans to employees at the company's town hall meeting in New York on Monday. The loss josses include those that will go due to the sale of Citi's German retail banking business and Citi Global Services. Citigroup's shares are trading at a 13-year low. They fell 4.4%, or 42 cents, to $9.10 in morning trading.

Banks around the world are suffering because of the drying up of the lending, and the pain in filtering through to the real estate sector. Cushman & Wakefield reported last week that banking take-up of office space in the City of London fell 69% over the past year in the wake of the current crisis in the financial industry.

The City's total office take-up figures are almost 40% lower over the year. The City submarket has seen the largest decline in rental levels, with the one-year rental change currently standing at -11.5%, with a 4.2% reduction seen over the last quarter.

However, banking take-up of offices across the whole of Europe has held firm despite the crisis, rising 2.2% over the year. This is in contrast to overall office take-up which has fallen by 13% in the 15 cities analysed by C&W. In total, some 538,000 m² of space was transacted by banks over the last six months.

Markets such as London (City and Docklands), Frankfurt and Amsterdam have been most affected by the current uncertainties, posting falling levels of banking take-up over the last six months. Paris (Ile-de-France) is continuing to perform well while Budapest, Barcelona and Prague saw an uplift in activity.