Thirty-nine full-time jobs will be lost over the next few months on the Isle of Man, as the Duncan Lawrie private banking branch there winds down, under the previously-announced break up and sale of its London-based parent.
The details of the job loss, and how this is affecting the islanders who are directly and indirectly affected, are detailed today in an interview of the IoM operation’s managing director, Sue Preskey, by a journalist with the the Isle of Man Today news website.
Preskey, the article noted, is among the 39 who are being made redundant, but she has “vowed to stay at the helm” to offer her support to staff and clients, the article says.
The exact timing of the end of the wind-down isn’t yet known, Preskey is quoted as saying, but she expects that that most of the staff will have left by the end of June or beginning of July.
“A small core function will probably be staying on for a few more months, to just wind down things down, the usual housekeeping stuff,” she said.
“That’s the plan. However, it does depend on doing everything we need to do. For some people it will take longer than others.”
Duncan Lawrie has had a presence in the Isle of Man for around three decades, according to the IoM Today.
As reported, Duncan Lawrie announced last December that it had agreed a plan to be broken up and sold, with the loan book of its private banking business going to Arbuthnot Latham & Co and its asset management arm to Brewin Dolphin Ltd. A “conservative risk appetite” and the “opportunities for investment elsewhere in the group” on the part of Duncan Lawrie’s parent, Maidstone, England-based, AIM-listed Camellia Plc, was described as a factor in the decision.
Last month, it was revealed that Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management UK & Europe had acquired more than 100 client portfolios from Duncan Lawrie’s Isle of Man operation.
