AON and WTW merger abandoned
The biggest merger in (re)insurance broking history of AON and Willis Towers Watson ("WTW") that was first announced in March has been called off altogether and the two businesses will go their own separate ways.
As mentioned in our June newsletter the plans were held up as a result of the filing of a civil antitrust lawsuit by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) for being potentially anti-competitive and creating a "broking behemoth".
Earlier in July the European Commission had actually approved the $30bn deal albeit with sizeable concessions involving the disposal of further business units to Gallagher.
There will be a variety of reasons as to why this merger has been pulled including the uncertainty with
the DOJ litigation which was not going to be heard until November, probable future disposals to rivals and the potential loss of staff after the deal .
A further consolidation amongst the "Big Three" brokers (includes Marsh) would potentially have narrowed the broking options for large and complex risks.