6 Benfield Group

Pre-tax profit (2003): £31.2m

Address: 55 Bishopsgate,

London EC2N 3BD

Tel: 020 7578 7000

Fax: 020 7578 7001

E-mail: enquiries@benfieldgroup.com

Website: www.benfieldgroup.com
Key milestones:

1973: Establishment of Benfield, Lovick & Rees (BLR) and established

as a Lloyd's broker

1974: Greig Fester formed as a result of merger between Fester Fothergill and Hartung (established 1874) and WT Greig (established 1921)

1988: A team including the late Matthew Harding, John Coleman and Grahame Chilton lead a management buy-out of Benfield, Lovick & Rees to form the Benfield Group

1995: The Benfield Group acquires Lloyd's reinsurance broker Ellinger Heath Western, a specialist in North American and UK non-marine treaty reinsurance.

1997: The Benfield Group merges with Greig Fester to form Benfield Greig Group

2001: Benfield Greig Group merges with EW Blanch (established in 1957) to form Benfield Group

2003: Creation of a single brand identity, represented by the name "Benfield". Benfield lists on the London Stock Exchange.

Main lines of business: Reinsurance broking

Number of UK employees (2003): 855

Chief officer: Grahame Chilton, chief executive, Benfield Group

Biography: Chilton joined Benfield in 1982 from CT Bowring. Over the years, he has traded in non-marine, marine and aviation reinsurance and direct retrocession business. He has been a director since 1986 and was part of the management team that led the buy-out of Benfield in 1988.

Since his appointment as group chief executive in 1996, Benfield has expanded through a combination of organic growth and a number of strategic transactions, including the acquisitions of Greig Fester Group Ltd, Bates Turner Intermediaries LLC and EW Blanch Holdings, Inc. During this time revenue increased from £50m to £300m.