Putnam Axes a Dozen Portfolio Managers

November 17, 2008 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Putnam Investments is axing positions from its workforce, the company announced.

The company announced Monday that a dozen portfolio managers will be leaving.In addition, 35 staff positions out of 2,500 have been eliminated across the firm, including reductions to quantitative research, Putnam said.

“We would make these changes whether markets were rising or falling,” said CEO, Robert L. Reynolds, in a news release. “They reflect a drive to simplify our offerings and foster leaner, more rapid decisionmaking to deliver better results. They enable us to manage our equity unit more efficiently and redirect resources to growth. And even as we make these adjustments, we are in the marketplace actively seeking to hire proven talent.”

On Monday, Putnam also announced a series of fund mergers (See Putnam Merges Six Equity Offerings ) and a reorganization of its equity structure (See Putnam Announces Equity Restructuring ), and announced that the Putnam International New Opportunities Fund will now be managed by Jeffrey Sacknowitz.

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