Enron Slashes 200 Jobs as It Tries to Revive Trading Unit

Enron Corp. cut 200 more headquarters jobs Friday, mostly in the energy-trading business the company has been trying to keep alive since filing the biggest bankruptcy case in history.

The cuts--involving traders, support staff and others at Enron North America--will take effect Dec. 15, spokesman Johan Zaayman said. Enron fired 4,300 at its Houston headquarters Monday, a day after its Chapter 11 filing, and 1,100 in Britain a week ago.

Enron’s bankers, led by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc., have been trying to get $1 billion in financing to revive the firm’s trading arm, once the world’s biggest. Enron has cut back offerings on its Web-based trading system that once handled $2.8 billion in daily transactions.

“It’s a strategy to try to survive,” said Charles Rhoads, who specializes in energy firms at headhunter Boyden Executive Search Consultants in Houston. “They’re trying to preserve the trading business on a smaller scale, so that what they do have will be successful.”

Still, A.G. Edwards & Sons analyst Michael Heim said, “any firing in that area is a sign it will be a difficult task to bring it back.”

Enron had sales of $100.8billion last year. It had 21,000 employees worldwide as of Sept.30 and has cut 4,500 jobs in Houston, or 60% of its work force there.

Enron shares rose 9 cents to close at 75 cents on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock, down 99% in a year, has plunged amid allegations that Enron used affiliated partnerships to hide billions of dollars in losses and debt.