Canaccord Capital cutting salaries, 10% of staff

Three-month TSX trading in Canaccord Capital

The turmoil in financial markets generated more pink slips Thursday as Canaccord Capital Inc. announced it's laying off about 10 per cent of its employees and slashing the salaries of senior executives by 10 per cent to 20 per cent.

The independent investment dealer, which has its head office in Vancouver, said the cuts are a result of current market conditions, as well as "an ongoing focus on cost reduction" announced in May.

The company has about 1,700 employees working out of 30 offices in Canada, the United States, Britain and Barbados.

"We are making some difficult changes to our business resulting from both a comprehensive strategic review and as a consequence of the rapid deterioration in the global capital markets," CEO Paul Reynolds said in a release.

"These revised staffing levels represent the right-sizing of our operations to meet current market conditions," he added.

Canaccord is set to announce its financial results for the second quarter of fiscal 2009 on Nov. 6.

Shares of Canaccord closed down 12 cents at $5.73 on the TSX.

Earlier this week, mutual fund company AIC Ltd. laid off 53 of its 290 employees, while investment manager Sentry Select Capital Corp. cut 35 of its 160 workers.

Fidelity Investments Canada also laid off some of the 70 employees in one arm of its business, but didn't specify a number.