Broker completes shareholding deals in South America
Willis today announced that it has completed the purchase of 100 percent of the share capital of Herzfeld Willis S.A, a retail operation, and Willis S.A, a reinsurance operation in Argentina.
The business will now be known as Willis Argentina S.A.
Willis established a presence in Argentina in 1999 by acquiring 20 percent of Herzfeld & Levy, a leading national insurance broker, to become Herzfeld Willis.
The broker also set up Willis S.A., a reinsurance company in which the group took a 60 percent stake, with the remaining 40 percent owned by two private individual investors.
By 2004, Willis had eventually raised its stake in Herzfeld Willis to 60% to become the majority shareholder.
The latest deal sees Willis increase its stake to 100 percent in both the retail and the reinsurance operations.
Eugenio Paschoal, Chief Executive Officer for Willis Latin America, said: “We have taken full ownership of Willis Argentina because we see excellent growth prospects in this country and are committed to becoming the leading broker there. We have ambitious expansion plans for Latin America as a whole and a strong foothold in Argentina will help us maintain the double-digit growth momentum that we have built up in the region.”
