Troubled Close Brothers axes 600 jobs because it grapples with automobile finance scandal and assault by infamous short-seller

Troubled lender Close Brothers has announced 600 job cuts as it grapples with the fall-out from Britain’s car finance scandal and an attack by a notorious short-seller.

The cuts represent nearly a quarter of its workforce and come as the firm outsources more roles overseas, streamlines its corporate structure and steps up its use of artificial intelligence (AI).

It will see 200 staff go this year and 400 next year.

Boss Mike Morgan said: ‘We’ll take advantage of increased outsourcing and offshoring. Historically all of our roles have been kept in the UK.

‘It’s not the first time we’ve done it but we will push further on in this. It will mean reshaping our workforce.’

Morgan would not give further details about where the axe would fall.

Close Brothers has set aside £300m to cover a car finance scandal

But he said of the cuts: ‘Clearly that is regrettable but these changes are necessary to structurally lower our cost base and make us more competitive.

‘It’s what every one else is doing.’

The firm is among lenders caught up in a scandal around commission paid to car dealers for arranging loans to customers. 

It has set aside £300million to cover the cost of compensating motorists under a scheme set up by the City watchdog.

But short-seller Viceroy Research – which shot to fame with earlier exposes on Wirecard and Home Reit – says it will have to at least double this and possibly pay as much as £1.2billion.

Morgan strongly rejected the claims as the firm published half-year results yesterday and insisted it could handle the impact of the scandal.

He told the Mail: ‘They haven’t got our numbers. They’ve made judgments and the judgments they’ve made are incorrect.’

Morgan has been trying to turn around the company’s fortunes and said the job cuts being announced – which will reduce the workforce to around 2,000 – have not been brought forward as a result of the car finance scandal.

On Monday, Viceroy Research claimed the firm had ‘systematically represented’ its exposure to the scandal.

Morgan said the short-seller had not discussed the claims with it in advance and that they came ‘out of the blue’.

He added: ‘I didn’t hit the roof, I didn’t get upset about it, these things happen in business.’

And Morgan rejected Viceroy’s claim that the firm had already exhausted all options to try and shore up its finances to deal with the car finance scandal.

‘We’re in a strong position to deal with a range of outcomes. It’s delivering this strategy that’s the critical thing – this [Viceroy’s claim] is just a little bit of noise on the side,’ he said.

The job cuts come as part of efforts to slash costs by about £25million in the current financial year to the end of September, up from a £20million previous target – increasing to £60million by next year, a year ahead of a previous target.

Close Brothers reported a loss of £65.5million for the six months to the end of January, down from a loss of £102.2million a year earlier. 

Shares fell by as much as 6 per cent in early trading on Tuesday, adding to the 14 per  cent fall seen on Monday after Viceroy’s research was published.

Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell, said: ‘Close Brothers has swerved off the road with its latest results as profits crashed and it announced 600 job cuts.

‘The lender is still spinning from Viceroy’s short-selling report that alleged Close Brothers has not put enough money aside to cover potential liabilities from the car finance mis-selling scandal.

‘It was telling that the share price didn’t recover any of yesterday’s slump after Close Brothers denied the accusations were true, suggesting the market remains highly sceptical over the business until there is clarity on any compensation sums.

‘Job cuts and guidance for higher than previously expected annual cost savings would normally be the right ingredients to drive a share price higher, but not in Close Brothers’ case. The core business doesn’t look strong enough to warrant investors taking the risk of buying in the face of considerable uncertainty.’