Dominic Burke: JLT Specialty merger will help broker take market share

The merger of JLT Specialty with Lloyd’s broking unit Lloyd & Partners will help JLT take more market share from its rivals, according to group chief executive Dominic Burke.

Burke also criticised his rivals’ strategy, which he described as “dumbing down” the role of the broker.

JLT considers its main rivals to be the big three global brokers: Aon, Marsh and Willis.

Speaking to Insurance Times after the merger was announced this morning Burke said: “We are after market share. We want to grow, and this is the next stage of our development.

“As our businesses around the world today wake up they will be excited about the strength of the combined business and how it enables us as a group to win market share from our competitors in the specialty classes in which we operate all around the world.”

He added: “We as a firm do not believe in the strategy of our competitors, of globalising, of centralising, of dumbing down the role of the broker. We see the reverse. We are a client-first organisation. We want to provide the highest level of specialty capabilities and skill sets, great transactional skills and that’s how we see it.”

Burke said JLT Specialty and Lloyd & Partners, which were historically run separately within the JLT group, will be better together as their combination will allow the company to serve global clients more effectively, and will eliminate some overlap between the companies.

He said: “It became evident to me that whilst they were entirely complementary in what they were doing there was still also some overlap.

“It became evident to me that combining these two business would create a real specialty powerhouse with little overlap but clarity for our network as a unified and united business.”

JLT said in its announcement that it would update the market next March on integration costs and associated savings from the merger, suggesting that there may be redundancies.

But JLT group commercial director James Twining said: “This is not being driven by redundancies but by the growth opportunity that we see by bringing the businesses together. This is not a cost-motivated move at all.”