Jefferies CEO Says Normalcy Won’t Return Until Late 2021

(Bloomberg) -- The executives who run Jefferies Financial Group Inc. aren’t expecting the Covid-19 crisis to end anytime soon.

Chief Executive Officer Rich Handler and Brian Friedman, the firm’s president, say they’ve “decided to lead and prepare Jefferies in every way possible for the probability that it may not be until at least the third quarter of 2021 when we will have a true and fuller return to a world resembling the one we all took for granted.”

Their October memo was posted online for clients and employees. Peg Broadbent, the longtime chief financial officer of the firm’s main subsidiary, died from complications tied to coronavirus, the firm said in March.

“It is clear that there will be some version of a hybrid model going forward creating a combination of a series of active central offices and meeting places, balanced with the opportunity to work from home,” Handler and Friedman wrote in the memo. “This will have implications for the size and layout of our offices.”

The executives also said that they won’t hesitate to fire people who perform poorly during the pandemic: “Those who do will be asked to leave, just as in prior periods.”

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