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Dentsu Aegis Network to cut 11% of jobs in seven markets, including Australia

The Dentsu Aegis Network will make approximately 11% of jobs redundant across seven markets, including Australia, as part of a restructure.

The job cuts will represent a reduction of 3% of DAN’s international headcount, and represent a saving of almost $200m annually (£100m). In addition to Australia, the impacted markets include: Brazil, China, France, Germany, Singapore (including regional headquarters) and the UK (including global headquarters of the international business).

The restructure was initially announced last month, coinciding with a revenue decline of 12.3% in quarter three of FY2019 due to “no green shoots of recovery” in the Australian market.

The news that this restructure will also involve redundancies comes as DAN downgrades its forecast for the fiscal year ending 31 December, which was made on 7 August.

The details of the forecast downgrade (Click to enlarge)

DAN said the Japan business’ performance has been “in line with our expectations”. There are no changes to the Japan business forecast.

“Within the international business, there are a small number of large, complex and challenged markets that have reported ongoing underperformance over recent quarters,” DAN said in a statement.

“This has continued into the fourth quarter, resulting in a downward revision to our full-year performance expectations. In order to future-proof the business, a number of planned strategic initiatives are being introduced in these markets to enable us to deliver sustainable growth in FY2020 and beyond. This restructuring will accelerate the implementation of the new business model and deliver improvements and efficiencies for our business and our clients.

“We remain committed to these markets to enable their long-term success but must ensure they are structured appropriately to drive operating margin improvements, deliver revenue growth, and achieve a better service for our clients and experience for our people.”

Last month, amid the Australian market’s turbulence, CEO Henry Tajer was unexpectedly ousted after less than a year in the role, replaced immediately by Angela Tangas. Tajer had started his own local restructure of the holding group, involving multiple redundancies, but APAC CEO Ashish Bhasin said the exit of Tajer and CFO Reg Davidson was the “right decision”.

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