Amaranth plans to cut 60% jobs

GREENWICH, CONNECTICUT: Amaranth Advisors, which is preparing to shut down after losing more than $6bn because of bad energy trades, expects to cut about 60% of its work force within a week.

As many as 250 of Amaranth’s 420 workers will be dismissed, said Charlie Winkler, the company’s chief operating officer. The company is contacting other financial firms in hopes of finding new jobs for employees.

Amaranth has 353 employees in Greenwich, 26 in London, 18 in Toronto, 11 in Singapore, nine in Calgary and three in Houston, wrote Stanley Friedman, Amaranth’s managing director for human resources, in an e-mail urging rivals to consider hiring its employees.

However, the Connecticut department of labour said that it had no record of Amaranth filing the 60 days’ notice required before laying off more than 100 people.

The firm said it is seeking an orderly process to sell about $3bn (euro2.37bn) of remaining assets and return proceeds to investors.

Amaranth’s energy and commodities portfolio was responsible for a big chunk of the fund’s previous success, booking a $1.26bn (euro990m) profit in ’05 and $2.17bn (euro1.71bn) for this year to the end of August.

It began incurring large losses in natural gas in the week starting September 11, and on September 14 it lost roughly $560m (euro442m) on its natural gas position as prices for the commodity plummeted to a two-year low.