KPN Plans to Reach Job-Cut Goal in 2013, Two Years Early

Royal KPN NV, the largest Dutch phone operator, said it will reach a workforce-reduction target two years early after “making progress” with job cuts. Its shares jumped the most in almost eight months.

KPN now plans to eliminate as many as 5,000 positions in the Netherlands by 2013, when it has a “tough but achievable” goal of cutting costs at headquarters by 30 percent to 40 percent, the Hague-based company said today in a statement. First-quarter profit dropped 51 percent because of the increased costs of reorganization as well as investment spending on its struggling domestic mobile operations, KPN said.