The Danish investment bank Saxo Bank is to axe between 320 and 340 employees according to a new plan designed to streamline the organisation.

When the bank's two new managing directors Eric Rylberg and Karsten Poulsen were put in place at the beginning of August, the bank's founders gave them the primary job of determining whether efficiency could be improved.

"Again this year, Saxo Bank has provided good results - but the bank has grown quickly in many areas. That normally results in a certain inefficiency - and that has also happened here. It's a well-known phenomenon for a company in its entrepreneurial phase. Now it's a question of putting the bank into a new phase in which growth is managed and methods are more systematic," Director Eric Rylberg tells Ritzau.

320 fewer
The streamlining plan includes outsourcing, better use of technology, a simpler organisation and management structure, between 320 and 340 fewer employees in Denmark and some 50 fewer abroad - primarily in Great Britain.

Saxo Bank's founders and CEOs Kim Fournais and Lars Seier Christensen regret the layoffs but say that the move is right for the company.

"Some people will criticise the fact that despite increased profits we lay off so many employees. But we have determined that we can be more efficient. We regret having to say farewell to employees, but it's best for the company that we undergo this phase change now," the two say in a statement.

CSC - Saxo untouched
The efficiency drive will not, however, affect Saxo Bank's sponsorship of the Team CSC Saxo Bank cycling team, which is managed by the former Danish cycling icon Bjarne Riis.

""There are no savings in our marketing. And Riis Cycling is only a third of our overall marketing budget," says Kasper Elbjørn.

Bjarne Riis and Saxo Bank agreed a three-year sponsorship of the Danish cycling team earlier this year.

Until the New Year, the team's name remains Team CSC Saxo Bank, but from 2009 it will be called Team Saxo Bank.