Last checked at 
* Follows tough year for many active managers
* Consulting with staff; no detail on total job cuts
* Cuts likely to fall across functions
(Adds background, detail on funds)
By Sujata Rao, Carolyn Cohn and Simon Jessop
LONDON, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Merian Global Investors is
planning to restructure its business and is consulting with
employees about job losses, it said on Wednesday, the latest
active asset manager seeking to cut costs and shed assets as
investors turn to cheaper funds.
Managers who make active investment decisions have been
struggling to outperform markets in recent years, heaping
pressure on them to lower their fees as more investors opt for
cheaper, index-tracking funds.
The move comes less than two years after Merian was created
through a private equity-backed buyout from Anglo-South African
financial services company Old Mutual in June 2018. It currently
has around 230 employees.
“Against a very difficult market environment, we have
conducted a review," Chief Executive Mark Gregory said in a
statement.
“This is not a decision we have taken lightly, and will mean
the loss of some very talented colleagues who have contributed
significantly to the success of the business."
The company declined to give a figure for the number of jobs
at risk.
Named after scientist, adventurer and artist Maria Sibylla
Merian, Merian was initially led by star fund manager Richard
Buxton.
Buxton stepped back from the CEO role in January 2019 to be
replaced by Gregory, former finance chief at Legal & General
, but continued to lead investments in UK equities, the
sector where he made his name.
The job cuts at Merian follow similar moves by peers.
In October, Lazard Asset Management was reported as being
set to lay off around 7% of its global workforce, after a summer
dominated by the slow collapse of UK stock picker Neil
Woodford's fund company.
FTSE 100 asset manager Standard Life Aberdeen is
also undergoing a major restructuring after a 2017 merger, with
a fresh round of job cuts flagged by sources earlier this year.
Merian has seen its assets hit hard since starting life as
an independent company.
Industry tracker Morningstar said Merian had 45 funds in its
database at the end of June 2018 with combined assets under
management of 36.2 billion euros ($39.9 billion). At the end of
Oct. 2019, it had 34 funds with combined assets of 22.8 billion
euros, a drop of nearly 40%.
The biggest fund in the range is the Merian Global Equity
Absolute Return Fund, which has seen its assets slide 65% from
13.6 billion euros to 4.7 billion euros, the data showed.
($1 = 0.9073 euros)
(Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
