British engineering and electronics firm Invensys has announced a further 3,500 job cuts as a slowing global economy delayed the planned flotation of its Power Systems unit and hit full year earnings.
Operating profit fell to £929 million sterling in the year to March 31st from £1.15 billion a year earlier, after a slowdown in key US markets squeezed revenues at the group which makes products and systems to help run manufacturing plants.
The group said the further 3,500 cuts would be spread around the world, but would focus on its controls and power systems operations.
"For a group with 85,000 employees, that's just not (that) big a deal," chief executive Mr Allen Yurko told reporters at a news conference, commenting on the latest job cuts.
However, shares rose as investors expressed relief that the company had not reported additional bad news on top of the fall in profits and delayed Power Systems flotation, which analysts had been expecting.
The stock has nearly halved in value since last August, when a takeover of Dutch software firm Baan sank its shares, and has underperformed the broader FTSE All Share Index by about 12 per cent since early January.
Mr Yurko said the US economy was currently experiencing an industrial recession, and said the current climate was so uncertain that even the Federal Reserve Chairman Mr Alan Greenspan would find it hard to predict.
"I don't think even Mr. Greenspan knows for sure," said Mr Yurko.