Marsh & McLennan Companies (MMC) has secured the US antitrust approval for its $5.6bn acquisition of Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT), a UK-based insurance and reinsurance broker.
Image: The Federal Trade Commission has approved MMC’s acquisition of JLT. Photo: courtesy of Carol M. Highsmith/Wikipedia.org.
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) granted an early termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act to MMC’s acquisition of JLT, which was announced last month.
The HSR waiting period termination is an effective conclusion of the competition review of FTC as well as the Department of Justice in the US. It also ticks off a key condition needed for the closing of the MMC acquisition of the British insurance broker.
The acquisition would still need some more antitrust and regulatory approvals along with the approval of JLT shareholders.
A meeting of the UK firm’s shareholders is scheduled to take place early next month for voting on the transaction.
According to the terms of the all-cash deal, shareholders of JLT will be paid £19.15 ($25.19) per share in cash from MMC.
The transaction is anticipated to help MMC to accelerate its strategy to transform into a leading firm in risk, strategy and people.
The US professional services firm believes that JLT’s track record pertaining to growth and geographic diversification will enhance its own ability to accelerate growth and margin expansion in both geographies and products.
Established in 1997 by the merger of Jardine Insurance Brokers and Lloyd Thompson Group, JLT operates in 40 countries with a strong footprint in the UK and Australia.
The specialty business of the UK-based insurance and reinsurance broker provides risk and insurance broking advice to multiple industries such as energy, mining, healthcare, construction, aerospace and marine sectors.
On the other hand, its reinsurance business – JLT Re provides risk analysis and risk transfer solutions to its insurer clients across all classes of treaty and facultative reinsurance.
In July, JLT’s employee benefit business JLT Employee Benefits signed a deal to acquired digital saving and investment service Moola for an undisclosed price. Prior to that, UK firm acquired OWL Marine Insurance Brokers, a specialty marine insurance broker, in May 2018.