(Bloomberg) -- XL Group Plc Chief Executive Officer MikeMcGavick said employees who are worried about disruption from hiscompany’s planned purchase of Catlin Group Ltd. should think twiceabout jumping ship.

Other reinsurance deals, including last month’s agreement byAxis Capital Holdings Ltd. to merge with PartnerRe Ltd., havecreated some “turmoil” in the market, McGavick said on a conferencecall.

“If you thought your situation was the only difficult situationaround, and therefore it became tempting to go to some otherorganization and feel safer, I don’t think that mentality is goingto be very much in play right now,” McGavick said late Monday.“It’s going to be difficult to go somewhere where you’re safe fromall of this, because I think it’s going to take a while to playout.”

Consolidation is accelerating in the markets for reinsurance andspecialty commercial coverage as companies seek to gain scale anddiversify their risks. RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. struck a deal inNovember to purchase Platinum Underwriters Holdings Ltd.

McGavick said last month after announcing the deal to purchaseBermuda-based Catlin that he will cut jobs amid the integration. Hesaid on Monday that the combined insurer would seek to retain themost dedicated employees.

“You’re probably going to want to make sure you put your bestfoot forward, and that includes staying focused and delivering,” hesaid. “People are, in a sense, showing us that they have theability to perform under difficult circumstances. That’s animportant credential that they are advertising to us and to theirfuture colleagues.”

‘Natural Order’

XL rose 13 cents to $35.34 at 10 a.m. in New York, extending itsgain for the year to about 2.8%. The Dublin-based company reportedon Monday that fourth-quarter operating profit climbed 2.5% to$293.9 million.

Validus Holdings Ltd. CEO Ed Noonan said in a Jan. 30 conferencecall that the mergers create dislocations that could provideopportunities for his company to recruit underwriters.

“I don’t mean that in a predatory way, I just think that’s thenatural order of things,” he said on the call.

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