29 October 2014 Insurance

Willis sees growth despite losses

Broker Willis said it has seen organic growth driven by its emerging markets businesses and solid performance in North America – despite seeing another loss making quarter.

Its organic commissions and fees grew 2.5 percent in the third quarter of 2014. The group as a whole, however, made a net loss of $7 million in the third quarter of 2014, compared with a loss of $27 million in the third quarter of 2013.

The broker posted total revenues of $812 million in the quarter of 2014, an increase of 2.1 percent from $795 million in the third quarter of 2013.

The Willis North America segment achieved 3.4 percent organic commissions and fees growth in the third quarter of 2014 compared with the third quarter of 2013.

“Growth in commissions and fees was recorded across many of the geographic regions in North America, led by mid-single digit growth in the Midwest and Atlantic regions. Willis North America also recorded solid growth across a number of the major industry and product practices including healthcare, FINEX and mergers and acquisitions,” said the broker.

The Willis International segment achieved 6.3 percent organic growth in commissions and fees in the third quarter 2014 compared with the same period in 2013.

Organic commissions and fees in the Willis global segment, declined 0.4 percent in the third quarter of 2014 compared with the third quarter of 2013.Willis said the decline reflects differing performance across the segment’s businesses. Willis Re grew low single-digits, despite market conditions that remain challenging.

Dominic Casserley, Willis’s chief executive officer, said: “Our overall organic commissions and fees grew 2.5 percent in the quarter. This reflects good growth in Willis International, led by emerging markets, and solid performance in Willis North America.

“Within our Willis global businesses, reinsurance continued to grow despite very difficult market headwinds while the UK insurance business was down, primarily due to a difficult comparison in the construction specialties division.

“On expenses, in the quarter we started to see the moderation in growth relative to the previous quarters that we expected. Additionally, we continued to make very good progress on our operational improvement programme. I am pleased that our current expectations for savings from actions we expect to take in 2014 and 2015 are ahead of initial estimates - this bodes well for the programme.”

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