Aon's net income jumped 10% to $191m in the second quarter and 14% to $390m for the first half of 2005.
The growth in net income was helped by a larger than expected reduction in expenses, including Aon's sale of its low-margin claims services business.
Meanwhile, Aon's second-quarter revenues declined 1% to $2.52bn, and revenues from its risk and insurance services segment fell 2.5% to $1.4bn. The decline largely reflected a reduction in contingent commissions to $4 million during the second quarter from $43 million during the same period last year. Aon terminated its contingent agreements with insurers last October.
For the first six months of 2005 Aon's revenues fell 1.5% to $5.03bn. Along with its risk and insurance services segment, it reported a 3% gain in consulting revenues to $624m and a 1% gain in insurance underwriting revenues to $1.6bn for the first half.
Merrill Lynch analyst Jay A Cohen wrote in a report: "We would not call the second-quarter results stellar, but given the low expectations for the company, they were better than expected due to an upside surprise."
