Legal & General to merge investment units to cut costs

LONDON, May 23 (Reuters) - British insurer Legal & General (L&G) will merge two of its investment units as part of efforts to simplify the business and cut costs, the company said on Friday.

As part of the shake-up there will be an undisclosed number of job losses in its asset management division. Howie Li, L&G's London-based global head of Index and ETFs, is set to leave, the firm said.

The FTSE 100-listed company will combine its index funds unit and exchange-traded-funds (ETFs) division to create a more global team, to be led by internal hire David Barron.

L&G runs one of Europe's largest asset management businesses, overseeing around 1.1 trillion pounds ($1.5 trillion) of assets. CEO Antonio Simoes recently hired ex-PGIM executive Eric Adler to run the overall asset management division.

The changes will result in around 80 roles being cut, the Financial Times earlier reported. The Times newspaper had previously reported 70 job cuts in asset management.

"We believe these changes will further strengthen our ability to focus on growth opportunities and execute on our long-term strategy," an L&G spokesperson said of the changes in index funds and ETFs.

L&G under Simoes has sought to scale up in higher-profit markets such as private assets, while trimming roles to manage costs. ($1 = 0.7419 pounds) (Reporting by Aatrayee Chatterjee in Bengaluru and Iain Withers in London; Editing by Anil D'Silva, Sahal Muhammed and Louise Heavens)

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