JLT reveals hopes for further acquisitions

JLT Group says it will continue to make targeted acquisitions after today publishing its Q1 trading statement.

JLT made two acquisitions in the period from 1 January 2018 to 30 April 2018: International Risk Consultants, a US trade credit and political risk broker; and Chartwell Healthcare Ltd. (subject to regulatory approval), a specialised private medical insurance broker serving UK mid-market clients.

JLT was positive about its outlook ahead of the publication of results, saying its performance made it “well placed to grow and implement its strategy”.

The statement read: “As indicated in our 2017 full-year results announcement, we entered 2018 with real momentum, which has continued through the period, and anticipate delivering organic revenue growth in line with historical rates and achieving further financial progress.”

And looking towards future opportunities and strategy, the statement continued: “The group anticipates further investment in the business through targeted acquisitions and continues to have a pipeline of opportunities to further supplement organic revenue growth and extend our specialty capabilities.”

There was “good progress” in JLT’s global reinsurance business and following a restructure of it’s specialty businesses globally, JLT said “several important client wins” had been achieved. As a result, “good organic revenue growth” was anticipated for the future.

Other highlights included a Global Transformation Programme, which JLT said was progressing on schedule. The anticipated costs for 2018 of £33m and benefits of £16m remain as previously stated. However, once fully implemented by 2020, it said this would produce annualised savings of £40m for a one-off total cost of £45m.

JLT will publish a restatement of the 2017 financial accounts during the second quarter of 2018, reflecting the new structure of the business and the adoption of the IFRS 9 and IFRS 15 accounting standards.

A spokesperson for JLT explained: ”These results will be restated to account for the fact that the business has been recently restructured into three divisions; Global Specialty, Employee Benefits and Reinsurance. With respect to the accounting standards, JLT announced at full year that it would restate to account for the changed standards.”