Aon Corporation announces major restructuring after Benfield acquisition
01 Dec 2008
Insurer Aon Corporation today announced having created a new global specialty business unit - Aon Specialty - in a strategic move designed to take advantage of its decision earlier this year to pull together Aon's $5 billion in retail revenue, 26,000 staff and $54 billion in annual premium throughput into one global team designed to best serve clients.
Grahame Chilton, vice chairman of Aon Group, will lead a multi-year effort to improve growth across all areas of Aon. Chilton was former CEO of Benfield Group that was recently acquired by Aon in August.
In this role, Chilton will work directly with Greg Case, Group CEO and president and CEO of Aon Corporation, directly overseeing Aon's business-building and global growth initiatives. In this capacity Chilton has already been appointed as chairman of Aon Specialty - a major initiative to combine all of Aon's specialty businesses into one global unit. Aon Specialty encompasses over $1 billion in revenue, thousands of clients and colleagues around the world and represents one of the highest priority growth areas for Aon.
"Aon Specialty builds on the momentum of our Benfield acquisition," said Case, president and chief executive officer of Aon Corporation. "This business unit will leverage the strong specialty talent within Aon with the strong talent within the former Benfield Corporate Risk division to bring unmatched global solutions to our construction, energy, marine, space and aviation clients."
Aon Corporation is a world-leading provider of risk management services, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, human capital and management consulting, and specialty insurance underwriting. It was created in 1982, when the Ryan Insurance Group (founded by Pat Ryan in the 1960s) merged with Combined International Corporation (founded by W. Clement Stone in 1919). In 1987, that company was introduced to Wall Street as Aon, a Gaelic word meaning ''Oneness.''
Benfield Group is a leading independent reinsurance and risk intermediary. Customers include most of the world's major insurance and reinsurance companies as well as government entities and global corporations.
On 22 August 2008, Chicago based Aon Corporation announced that it will acquire Benfield Group. The acquiring price will be $1.75 Billion or £935 Million, with $170 Million of debt.
