Australia’s highly profitable boys club, the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), is trying to make itself even more profitable. Around 10% of staff, or 45-55 jobs, will go by the end of June.

New CEO Tony D’Aloisio is certainly swinging the axe. DAloisio took the reins at the ASX last October. The cost this financial year of all the reviews and changes will be “in the order of $15 to $20 million (for redundancies and write-offs and related costs)” the company said today – here.

The ASX said it’s looking to cut costs by around $8 million next financial year, and $15-20 million a year by 2008, before inflation. The ASX World Link will be scaled down (the inbound Singapore link will maintained) because no-one in Australia wants to use it. The ASX’s current investment in World Link of $7.3 million will be written off. And the ASX is also looking at listing fees and trading costs with a view to maintaining its competitiveness.

The ASX earned $79 million after tax in the nine months to March – up 25% on the same period of the previous year. A nice, fat monopoly profit, although investors weren’t overwhelmed by the news, slicing the shares 30c to a rich $21.80 by 10.30am.