Aon Merger (merger and Acquisitions)
INTRODUCTION
On the 2nd of December 2010 Aon Corporation announced its intention to bid USD86 million to buy South African insurance firm Glenrand MIB, giving the worlds largest insurance broker a bigger presence in South Africa.
Although this acquisition did not make too much noise at global level (due to the size of Aon Corporation), it definitely had a big impact on Aon South Africa.
The combined entity now owns 18 branches in South Africa and the merger is allowing an improvement in the service to all existing clients.
Glenrand MIB has become a full subsidiary of Aon and was delisted from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in April 2011.
Headquartered in Chicago, Aon Corporation is a risk, actuarial, healthcare and retirement funding consultancy and insurance broking business which operates across the world.
With an employee base of 59000 people and 500 offices in more than 120 countries, the Companys clients include corporations and businesses, insurance companies, professional organizations, independent agents and brokers, Governments, and other entities.
It currently has a market capitalization of more than 15bln USD.
Headquartered in Johannesburg, Glenrand MIB provides insurance broking and risk advisory services. Their strength is in financial insurance, building and engineering insurance and professional indemnity and their main focus is on businesses (65% of its activities). Glenrand MIB focuses on short-term insurance.
The Companys strong presence in South Africa is complemented by offices in Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.
Anton Roux, CEO for Aon Sub-Sahara Africa, said that prior to the merger the two firms had a “complementary strategic fit that could be exploited to grow market share”. In other words, the merger would result in an improved service offering to existing and potential clients of both companies.
BACKGROUND ON AON
Aon Corporation has three main business lines which, in turn, specialize in different sectors:
Consulting
Healthcare
Retirement
Actuarial (this sector is the biggest in the SADEC region)
Benfield (biggest re-insurance broker in the world)
Risk Solutions (short term insurance on assets)
In South Africa, Aon is present with all three business lines and it is the number one in Risk Solutions.
Aon Consulting merged with Hewitt to form Aon Hewitt: