The owner of financial data platforms including Mergermarket and Dealogic has cut over a fifth of its staff this year as the largest unit of billionaire Andrea Pignataro’s technology group Ion stepped up cost-cutting amid increasing scrutiny from creditors. Senior staff at the group were asked at the beginning of this year to reduce the business’s existing headcount to 4,500, from more than 6,000 staff at the turn of the year. So far the group has managed a reduction of more than 20 per cent to overall headcount.

The cuts have hit businesses across Ion Platform, which holds businesses including Mergermarket, Dealogic and Fidessa. Ion told creditors in the third quarter of last year that it was targeting savings of over $167mn from headcount "synergies". In an update provided to creditors in June and seen by the FT, Ion said that it had already made changes that would result in a total $158mn of savings, with $9.2mn in "further headcount savings" still to complete.