Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) has announced 400 redundancies in its mobile security unit, following a fall in group earnings in its annual results.

G&D said the job cuts at the unit, whose activities include SIM card production and the Trusted Service Manager (TSM) business, were part of a company-wide initiative to improve profitability.

The company saw its group Ebit fall to EUR95 million in 2012, down from EUR108 million in 2011. This drop was despite a near 10 percent rise in sales, to EUR1.8 billion.

G&D’s announcement described the mobile security unit as operating in an environment “characterised by particularly strong competition and price pressure worldwide”.  However, the unit reported a five per cent sales growth to EUR687 million.

The 400 job cuts will all take place in the company’s European operations, including 125 at its Munich HQ.

“The profitability program in the mobile security unit is set to run for 18 months and targets an improvement of EUR60 million a year,” explained Dr. Peter Zattler (pictured),  G&D’s CFO.