Prudential closes research operations

Prudential Financial today announced that it would close its equity research and trading business business, Prudential Equity Group. The group will drop coverage of all the companies it covers and shut down offices across the globe causing some 420 employees to lose their jobs. Prudential’s latest move marks its exit from the securities industry. The insurance giant made its Wall Street debut in 1981, upon acquiring retail brokerage Bache Halsey Stuart Shields and forming Prudential-Bache Securities, according to Reuters. Prudential had been losing ground, unable to keep up in the research and trading businesses, a Prudential spokeswoman told Reuters. Just this March, Prudential lost analyst Michael Mayo and his research team to Deutsche Bank. Prudential started trimming costs in its trading business in 2003 with the sale of its retail brokerage and investment banking units to Wachovia, forming Wachovia Securities.