Jardine Lloyd Thompson, SIACI SAINT HONORE, GrECo Group and Ecclesia Gruppe have signed an exclusive agreement

Europe’s leading independent insurance brokers announce a closer affiliation

In an important development to build out the JLT International Network in Continental Europe and CIS countries, three of Europe's leading independent insurance brokers, SIACI SAINT HONORE (S2H), GrECo Group (GrECo) and Ecclesia Group (Ecclesia) have come together with Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT) to sign an exclusive trading agreement.

The agreement encompasses compatible branding and mutual development of all insurance, reinsurance and employee benefits activities, including shared technology, for the benefit of clients across all industry sectors. These sectors include, but are not limited to, construction, energy, financial services, healthcare, communications technology, life sciences, transportation and aviation.

The new JLT International Network Partners in Europe now sit at the core of the JLT International Network (formerly JLT NetworkTM), a combination of owned, partly owned and non-owned broking and employee benefit consultancy operations in over 130 countries worldwide. It is central to JLT's and other JLT International Network Members' retail service proposition to multinational clients. The exclusive trading agreement forms a standard for future development in other key territories in which JLT currently works with Network Members on a non-exclusive or limited-exclusivity basis.

The importance of the agreement and each party's commitment to it is underlined by the fact that JLT shall take a 20% stake in GrECo, subject to regulatory approval, a company in which Ecclesia already has a 13.3% shareholding. In addition, JLT continues to hold its longstanding 20% shareholding in S2H.

Dominic Burke, CEO, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group commented : "We see this as a very important and exciting development for JLT and the JLT International Network. This new collaboration between JLT, SIACI SAINT HONORE, Ecclesia and GrECo goes beyond just referring international business to each other. It means a commitment to working together to utilise our respective industry specialist skills to the benefit of our existing and prospective clients".

Mark Drummond Brady, International Chairman of JLT's Risk & Insurance activities, said : "This close alignment and commitment to mutual exclusivity between the four partners is testament to JLT's confidence in the global service models that it has evolved over the past few years."

Friedrich Neubrand CEO of the GrECo Group looks forward to : "extending our reach from our comprehensive presence in Eastern Europe to all over the world. Our clients will benefit from the JLT International Network's premier network in Western Europe, Asia and Latin America and its specialist resources and state-of-the-art know-how."

Ralf Geck von Kaenel, CEO deas Commercial Group of Ecclesia, said : "The Ecclesia/GrECo partnership with JLT and S2H is a real milestone for us. Finally we are really global and can provide our clients with the best solutions and know-how around the globe. I am also very excited that JLT's structure of expert teams matches our structure perfectly and that JLT and S2H's global employee benefit expertise will enable our own employee benefit units to give better advice on worldwide pension programmes and expats."

Norbert C. R. Noehrbass, CEO Ecclesia Group, said : "Ecclesia is focused on growing to offer clients the best source for retail broking, claims handling and insurance consulting capabilities. By partnering with JLT, we are able to give our clients access to the most ambitious wholesale and reinsurance brokerage in the London and Bermuda marketplaces. The outstanding service capabilities JLT can roll out in Asia, Latin America and Australia will help us to target clients we would not previously have been able to reach."

Pierre Donnersberg, Chairman of the Executive Board SIACI SAINT HONORE, said : "The long term partnership with JLT has always been productive for our clients, highly composed of international firms, and for S2H. I am sure that the JLT International Network Partners with a stronger network commitment will improve our services capacity and expertise, two main keys to client satisfaction and success."

Notes to editors

Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group plc
JLT is an international group of risk specialists and employee benefits consultants and one of the largest companies of its type in the world. We offer a distinctive choice to our clients and partners through our combination of independence, scale and specialism.

As an independent business, we are able to operate with autonomy and flexibility. We have the scale to provide solutions to the complex demands of the world's leading companies and to deliver global servicing whilst recognising that the needs of each of our clients are unique. By developing highly specialised services, we provide our clients with a depth of expertise and experience.

The value we create is driven through the personal determination of over 6,200 highly motivated and skilled people.

SIACI SAINT HONORE
SIACI SAINT HONORE (S2H) is the 5th largest insurance broker in France, but ranked 3rd for industrial and corporate business. S2H has over 1,000 employees and counts 30 of the top 40 French listed companies as their clients.

The corporate business is France based (Paris), with a Marine subsidiary in Geneva, Switzerland and a captive management business in Luxembourg (Risk & Reinsurance Solutions). S2H's expatriate healthcare arm, MOBILITY SAINT HONORE, has operations in Calgary, Dubai and Shanghai.

GrECo Group
GrECo, the largest broker in Austria, is a privately owned company with headquarters situated in Vienna. For 85 years the company has been operating in risk and insurance management and employee benefits consulting for corporations, associations and authorities. GrECo is the market leader in the Eastern Europe region and is represented in 15 countries, operating in 50 offices with 625 employees.

Outside Austria, GrECo has operations in Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. These operations will be rebranded GrECo/JLT.

Ecclesia Group
Based in Detmold, Ecclesia has grown by huge primarily organic growth to the 2nd largest insurance brokerage in Germany. It employs 1,200 in Germany and 30 in Switzerland. The Group has over 28 offices in Germany and 3 offices in Switzerland. The business model allows specialist brokers to be recognized by their own brands as market leaders in their field to operate under the general umbrella of "Ecclesia" or "deas Deutsche Assekuranz-Makler", the commercial business arm.

JLT International Network
JLT has its own branded international overseas broker network: JLT International Network (formerly JLT NetworkTM), which provides comprehensive service in over 130 countries worldwide for its multinational clients. JLT International Network Partners, with at least minority owned interests in 45 of these countries, provides the core of the JLT International Network. All other members of JLT International Network have been chosen carefully for their knowledge, quality and capabilities, and above all for their strength and reputation in their domestic market.

Sources : JLT Group plc

Unirisc group is the swiss representative of the JLT International Network since 1994.