NU Online News Service, Aug. 7, 3:46 p.m.EDT

Despite a strong second-quarter earnings report for Marsh &McLennan Companies, analysts raised concerns with how the economicwoes in Europe are affecting business.

But company officials say the diversified nature of the firm ishelping it to continue modest growth in that region.

The New York-based services firm, and parent company toinsurance broker Marsh and reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter,reported second-quarter net income of $329 million, up 17 percentover the same period last year.

For the first six months of this year, net income is up 11percent, or $69 million, to $676 million, compared to a year ago.Revenues rose almost 5 percent, or $265 million, to $6.1billion.

In the risk and insurance segment, primarily Marsh and GuyCarpenter, overall revenues for the second quarter increased 5percent, or $78 million, to $1.7 billion. Organic growth stood at 6percent.

All segments of the risk and insurance business reported revenueincreases, including EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Asia), whichreported revenue increase of 2 percent in the quarter to $455million.

Responding to questions from analysts during a conference call,company officials expressed optimism that while challenges layahead in Europe, Marsh & McLennan would navigate throughthem.

“What we are trying to point out is that in the last 12 monthsor so we have been experiencing issues in Europe and we have stillbeen able to handle that,” Duperreault says about the continentseconomic woes. “And we believe we can handle that going forward…andunless there is a complete meltdown of the global economy, we feelwe can handle our exposures.”

Daniel S. Glaser, group president and chief operating officernoted that “if you go back a decade or more, continental Europe wasnot a high-growth area for us.”

He added, “Our global network really benefits [us] quite a bit,because while European companies may not be doing all that well inEurope they are doing as well as anyone else with a multi-nationalfootprint.

“We are working with French companies around the world, orSpanish companies around the world,” he continued. “You hear arefrain when you visit these companies about how they are not doingwell in their local market, but they are doing quite well outsideof their local market.”