The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec is undergoing a reorganization of its operations. The Caisse says that the measures to be taken will reduce its operating costs by $22 million annually.

The reorganization essentially involves the following:
– better-defined investment priorities;
– tighter risk management;
– tighter administrative management;
– reduction of the number of subsidiaries;
– reduction of the number of foreign business offices from 11 to 3;
– abolition of 138 of the Caisse’s 958 positions, or a 14 % reduction of personnel;
– a number of senior management changes.

These decisions will be applied from now until mid-April. Most of the layoffs are effective immediately, but certain people will remain with the Caisse until the spring to ensure the changes are made in an orderly fashion.

The operations of “CDP Capital – Private Equity” will be reorganized as three entities rather than six. The three entities will be CDP Capital – Americas, CDP Capital – Communications and CDP Capital Technology Ventures”.

The position of President of CDP Capital – Private Equity will be abolished. The Presidents of CDP Capital – Americas, CDP Capital – Communications and CDP Capital – Technology Ventures will report directly to the Chairman of the Caisse.

CDP Capital – World Markets will now include the Small Capitalization team that previously was part of CDP Capital -Americas. This team invests in publicly traded small caps. CDP Capital – World Markets will be responsible for developing newinvestment products so that depositors can preserve their capital more effectively. The fund-of-funds operations will be folded into this subsidiary.

The Caisse is making several senior management changes. Four officers have assumed new responsibilities or have been transferred, as follows:

Nicolas Toutoungi, president of CDP Advisory Services, becomes vice-president, Strategic Development. André Bourbonnais, president of CDP Capital – Financial Services, becomes president of CDP Capital – Communications. Serge Desjardins, vice-president of CDP Capital – International, becomes vice-president of CDP Capital – Technology Ventures. Paul Juneau, president of CDP Accès Capital, becomes President of SME Services, CDP Capital – Americas.

Two officers have been promoted: Richard Guay, vice-president, Depositors’ Accounts Management, becomes executive vice-president, Risk Management and Depositors’ Accounts Management. Denis Senécal, vice-president, Business Development, Tactical Investments, becomes senior vice-president, Fixed Income.

Ghislain Parent has been hired as executive vice-president, Financeand Administration. Nineteen officers have left the organization, primarily because their positions have been abolished.