Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc.’s MMC subsidiary Marsh & McLennan Agency LLC (“MMA”) recently announced that it has closed the acquisition of Klein Agency, Inc., a St. Paul, MN-based surety and property/casualty agency with expertise in the field of construction activity. However, terms of this buyout were not disclosed.
Klein Agency is a third-generation family-run entity with experience of more than 50 years. It helps construction companies with their surety bonding, personal and business insurance needs. The agency’s employees and the top brass will join Marsh & McLennan Agency LLC and would continue its operations outside Klein’s current office.
With this transaction, MMA believes that its abilities will be expanded for delivering high-quality surety services to the exiting construction clients in Minnesota and upper Midwest.
The unit also informed that it has purchased Insurance Associates, a Rockville, MD-based independent insurance agency, specialized in construction industry. Terms of this transaction were also kept under wraps.
Insurance Associates has been providing commercial property/casualty insurance, surety and employee health and benefits solutions to clients across the Mid-Atlantic since 1956. With 59 personnel, the company operates out of four offices across Maryland in Rockville, Laurel and Towson apart from Fairfax, VA.
MMA expects to penetrate into the greater Washington DC region and enhance its construction capabilities with the aid of Insurance Associates.
Continuous acquisitions have always been a core growth strategy for Marsh and McLennan. These consolidations have enabled the parent company to widen its geographies as well as within the current locations, foray into new businesses, develop new segments and also, specialize within the ongoing businesses. These integrations have been supported by the company’s strong balance sheet.
Shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company have gained 5.67% in the past year, slightly underperforming its industry’s growth of 6.52%.
Key Picks
Investors interested in the insurance sector can look into some better-ranked stocks like Cigna Corporation CI, The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. HIG and Aon plc AON, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Cigna provides insurance and related products and services in the United States and internationally. The company managed to pull off an average four-quarter positive surprise of 15.74%.
Hartford and its subsidiaries provide insurance and financial services to individual and business customers in the United States. It delivered an average trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 9.55%.
Aon offers risk management services, insurance and reinsurance brokerage as well as human resource consulting and outsourcing services worldwide. It came up with an average four-quarter beat of 2.11%.
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