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Lloyd's List
April 5, 2004
Underlying growth is slowing at the world's leading insurance brokers, according to a new report
Steven Wevodau, managing principal of WFG Capital Advisors, a Pennsylvania investment banking and corporate advisor, said the trend was clear from his firm's latest Broker Insights report.
He said: "The leading firms only sustained slightly over 8% revenue growth from organic means for the quarter ending December, 2003.
"In other words, if you remove the benefit of acquisitions and foreign currency exchange fluctuations, organic revenue growth among the industry's eight leading firms posted very modest results during 2003." He added: "A more troubling matter is that the quarterly sequence of organic growth throughout 2003 trended downward each quarter.
"The first quarter indicated composite organic revenue growth of 13.9% and each succeeding quarter declined from there."
Mr Wevodau said this posed the question whether the leading firms would more aggressively seek acquisitions this year to supplement growth. His colleague at WFG, Rob Lieblein, added: "The market is at a very critical turning point and it is beneficial for all industry professionals to monitor the developments carefully over the next two quarters."
The report is due for release on April 15. Details at www.wfgca.com.
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