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Arthur J. Gallagher is a big beneficiary of European anti-trust regulators’ efforts to preserve competition among commercial insurance brokers.
The Rolling Meadows-based brokerage is paying $3.6 billion to acquire assets two London-based firms, Aon and Willis Towers Watson, are being required to divest in order to win approval from European Union anti-trust regulators for their $30 billion merger.
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The jewel among the businesses Gallagher will assume is Willis’ reinsurance brokerage operation. The business of securing insurance for other insurers, often to share the financial risk tied to catastrophes like hurricanes and earthquakes, is dominated by Marsh McLennan, Aon and Willis. Gallagher has a reinsurance brokerage, but it is far smaller.
Arthur J. Gallagher headquarters
(Bloomberg) Rolling Meadows-based insurance brokerage Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. is in talks to buy a portfolio of assets from Aon Plc and Willis Towers Watson Plc for about $3 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.
An agreement could be reached in the coming weeks, said the people, who asked to not be identified because the matter isn’t public. Assets in Germany, Spain, France, and the Netherlands as well as Willis Towers’ reinsurance business will be part of the package deal, the people said. No final decision has been made, the structure could still change and discussions could fall through, they said.