US – State Street Corp.’s chairman and chief executive says he sees almost “unlimited” opportunities for growth – despite posting “disappointing” quarterly earnings and having announced a total of 2,800 job cuts.

David Spina told the company’s annual general meeting: "I am excited about the almost unlimited opportunities we see for continued growth in the years ahead."

This week State Street reported that its first-quarter net income fell to 96 million dollars from 178 million dollars the year before - Spina called the results “disappointing”. And the company has announced a total of 2,800 job losses.

"State Street is a long-term growth company," Spina says, pointing out that 2002 was its 25th consecutive year of growth in operating earnings per share. "The foundation of our long-term business strategy is focus," Spina added.

The company’s top priority, he said, was to migrate clients it acquired via its 1.5 billion dollar purchase of Deutsche Bank’s Global Securities Services arm to its own systems.

The Boston-based company has 7.9 trillion dollars in assets under custody and 788 billion dollars in assets under management. State Street Global Advisors is the ninth largest manager of European pension fund assets.

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