Marsh & McLennan Buying Sedgwick Group

Marsh & McLennan Cos. of New York, the world’s biggest insurance broker, agreed to buy London-based Sedgwick Group, a leading broker in Europe, for $2.04 billion, to expand its global reach. Marsh & McLennan and other insurers are buying rivals hoping to boost profit by cutting costs and getting into new markets. In two other new deals, Australian life insurer AMP made a $1.75-billion hostile bid for general insurer GIO Australia Holdings, and German reinsurer Hannover Re said it reached an agreement to buy U.S. insurer Clarendon Insurance Group for $500 million. The deals were announced as the European Union approved the $1.4-billion purchase of Willis Corroon Group, another leading insurance broker in Britain, by New York-based Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., in a consortium with five insurance companies. Marsh & McLennan’s purchase of Sedgwick forms a company with $7.6 billion in annual revenue and puts further pressure on the second-largest insurance broker, Chicago-based Aon Corp., to keep from falling further behind, analysts said. Aon has revenue of $5.6 billion. Marsh & McLennan shares fell $1.13 to close at $55.56 on the New York Stock Exchange.