Engie to cut 1,150 French jobs, LNG unit making losses- L’Expansion

By Geert De Clercq

PARIS (Reuters) – French gas and power group Engie plans to cut about 1,150 jobs in various support functions and the firm’s Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) business is set to book a full-year loss after making losses in the first half, L’Expansion said.

The newsletter reported that Engie planned to cut 20 percent of its support functions in France, including 600 jobs at its call centres, 250 sales positions, 200 IT positions and possibly about 100 jobs in its trading division.

An Engie spokeswoman declined to comment.

The LNG industry in Europe is suffering due to low gas prices and overcapacity in LNG terminals.

In June, the French CGT labour union said that almost 10,000 jobs were at risk at Engie over the next three years due to the utility’s cost-cutting plans, which Engie has denied.

At the end of last year, Engie employed 155,000 staff globally, of which 74,000 are in France.

The company said at the start of the year that it wanted to cut costs by 1 billion euros (858.76 million pounds) by 2018.

(Reporting by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Brian Love and Louise Heavens)