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 economic woes in Europe are affecting business.

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

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

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

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

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

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

“What we are trying to point out is that in the last 12 months or so we have been experiencing issues in Europe and we have still been able to handle that,” Duperreault says about the continents economic woes. “And we believe we can handle that going forward…and unless there is a complete meltdown of the global economy, we feel we can handle our exposures.”

Daniel S. Glaser, group president and chief operating officer noted that “if you go back a decade or more, continental Europe was not 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 in Europe they are doing as well as anyone else with a multi-national footprint.

“We are working with French companies around the world, or Spanish companies around the world,” he continued. “You hear a refrain when you visit these companies about how they are not doing well in their local market, but they are doing quite well outside of their local market.”

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MMC Says Europe Woes Not a Business Impediment

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