Fee and commission income (1999):

Fee and commission income (1999):
£727.8m

Pre-tax profit (1999):
£7.7m

Head office:
10 Trinity Square
London
EC3P 3AX
Tel: 020 7488 8111
Fax: 020 7488 8223

e-mail: enquiries@willis.com

website: www.willis.com target

Major shareholders:
KKR (through Trinity Acquisition) 77%;
The Chubb Corporation;
Travellers' Property Casualty Corporation;
Guardian Royal Exchange;
Royal & SunAlliance Insurance Group;
The Hartford Financial Services Group;
Tokio Marine and Fire Insurance Co.
Chief officer: John Reeve, executive chairman

Biography:
John Reeve joined the board of the company in September 1995 from Sun Life Corporation where he was managing director. Previously, he was group director of finance at Mercantile House Holdings and at the British Aluminium Company.

He is a non-executive director of Temple Bar Investment Trust, a member of the executive committee and board of the International Insurance Society and chairman of the East London Partnership and of the English Concert.

Company history:
Willis Group was established in 1990 through the merger of Willis Faber plc and Corroon & Black

Corporation. Willis Faber's origins lie in the early 19th century and the founding in London of three firms, Henry Willis & Co, Faber Brothers, and Dumas & Wylie. The first two merged in 1897 to form Willis, Faber & Co. When that firm was joined by Dumas & Wylie, in 1928, the famous name of Willis, Faber & Dumas Limited came into being.

R A Corroon & Co Inc, was established in New York in 1905. In 1966 it merged with C R Black Jr Corporation. Of a great many subsequent amalgamations, the most significant was with Synercon Corporation, of Nashville, in 1976.

Outside the UK and US the group has built an international office network through which it provides a seamless service to all its clients. Major members of this network are Gras Savoye & Cie, France's leading broker, Jaspers Wuppesahl Industrie Assekuranz in Germany, Willis Corroon Italia and Assurandorgruppen in Denmark. The group will over time move to a majority holding in each of these companies. In mid-1998 the group's shareholders accepted an offer from the leveraged buy-out specialist, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. Consequently the group, which had been publicly quoted since 1976, reverted to being a private company. Among many benefits of this move is the ability to implement more quickly a programme of change, initiated in 1996, and other activities designed to enable the group to adopt more comprehensively the characteristics and practices of a professional services firm.

Main lines of business:
Willis is one of three global risk management and insurance intermediary groups. The group's clients include corporations, public entities, institutions, professional partnerships and individuals located throughout the world, that have in common an exposure to risk. Willis helps to limit such exposure by identifying and analysing the nature of the risks, developing programmes to reduce and control such risks, advising on risk retention methods and arranging placements to transfer risk to insurance and other markets.

In the UK, Willis is one of the largest risk management consultants and insurance brokers, and provides a comprehensive worldwide service to clients in all business sectors. Willis provides sophisticated risk financing consultancy services to major corporations as well as meeting the insurance needs of smaller companies and private individuals. Specialist teams address specific market sectors such as cargo, construction, credit and risk management and provide services to captive insurance companies, of which the Group is one of the largest managers in Europe.

Special schemes:
Willis operates various schemes for client groups such as insolvency practitioners, valuers and estate agents, licensed victuallers, Scottish landowners and woodland owners, and the Clinical Negligence Scheme for NHS Trusts.

Willis offers franchise partnerships to UK provincial insurance brokers to handle the insurance requirements of small companies and individuals, utilising specialised electronic systems and a select panel of underwriters.

Number of UK branches:
23

Number of employees (average for 1999):
9,446