NEW YORK, June 6 (UPI) -- U.S. insurance giant Prudential Financial Inc. said Wednesday it would close its Prudential Equity Group stock research, sales and trading business.
The company had been trying to find a buyer for the unit, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The cost of closing the 420-person business will be $110 million before taxes, or $72 million after taxes, the company said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The expense includes $75 million for employee severance and retention and $18 million for lease-related costs, the filing said.
Most offices and trading operations in nine U.S. and four overseas cities will close by the end of the month, the company said.
It was dropping research coverage immediately, Prudential said.
The business had 33 senior analysts.
Prudential Equity's income was $260 million of Prudential Financial's $24.8 billion of revenue and $34 million of its $4.2 billion of pretax profit in 2006, the company said.
Prudential Financial entered the securities industry in 1981 when it bought Bache Halsey Stuart Shields and renamed it Prudential-Bache Securities.
