Willis’ international segment drives growth
Broker Willis has reported strong organic growth for the year ended December 31, 2014, although its profits fell slightly.
The group recorded organic growth of 3.8 percent for the year, which included 9 percent growth in its international segment, followed by 2.8 percent growth in its North America segment and 1.4 percent growth in its global segment.
Its profits fell slightly to $362 million for 2014, compared with $365 million in the same period a year ago.
Its revenues grew to $3.8 billion for 2014, 4 percent growth from $3.7 billion in 2013. Total commissions and fees were $3.8 billion for 2014, compared with $3.6 billion for 2013. Organic growth in commissions and fees was 3.8 percent over the same period.
Dominic Casserley, Willis chief executive officer, said: “We finished 2014 with strong top-line growth driven by both another quarter of mid-single digit organic growth in commissions and fees and the impact of our recent acquisitions. We continued to make good progress on managing our organic cost growth and implementing our operational improvement programme.
“We achieved all this despite some ongoing challenging markets, demonstrating the strength of Willis’ diversified business model and our intense focus on executing our strategy. Importantly, we delivered growth in key underlying earnings metrics, including EPS, EBITDA and operating margin.
“We continued to reshape Willis to improve earnings, both organically and through acquisition. During the quarter, we welcomed new colleagues from Max Matthiessen, SurePoint Reinsurance, and IFG into Willis and, early in 2015, reached an agreement to acquire a majority interest in Miller Insurance Services.
“We enter the new year well positioned. We expect to drive our 2015 performance with mid-single digit organic revenue growth, supported by our recent acquisitions which we expect will deliver underlying EBITDA ranging from $55 million to $65 million, depending on when we close the Miller transaction. Finally, we expect that our organic cost management actions, combined with the impact of our operational improvement programme, will allow us to deliver at least 130 basis points of positive spread between organic revenue and expense growth in 2015.”
