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UBS Mulls Job Cuts In France on Weak Economy, CS Integration

(Bloomberg) -- UBS Group AG is looking at enacting job cuts in France in response to the country’s deteriorating economic outlook and the ongoing combination with Credit Suisse.

“Due to a less favorable market environment and after the integration of Credit Suisse earlier this year, UBS is considering a restructuring of some its business activities,” a spokesman said in response to questions from Bloomberg on Friday. He didn’t specify the potential size of the cuts.

The potential cuts at UBS add to signs that the France’s political uncertainty is taking a toll on companies. French business confidence dropped in December and the economy is set to expand by only 0.2% per quarter in the first half of next year, the country’s statistics agency said earlier this week.

But the reductions at UBS are also linked to the ongoing effort to integrate the former competitor Credit Suisse, which it agreed to buy early last year. UBS has repeatedly said that fusing the two banks together has been going better than initially expected.

The credit rating firm Moody’s cut France’s rating last week. Political and fiscal deadlock may impact its ability to cut spending and narrow its budget deficit.

The reduction plan UBS is considering in France “is currently being presented to its works council,” the spokesman said in the statement on Friday. Measures to provide support to affected staff will be established in collaboration with employee representatives, he said.

(Updates with details on rationale of potential cuts in third and fourth paragraph.)