Dan Glaser says he wants more from Bluefin and Jelf, but they are not to blame for weakness in UK and EMEA 

Marsh group chief executive Dan Glaser says he wants more from Bluefin and Jelf - but says they are not the cause of weakness in UK and EMEA.

Speaking to analysts, Glaser said:  ”So both Jelf and Bluefin and the combination of Jelf and Bluefin are performing as we expected on organic.

”Now, to be fair, we want more organic growth from Jelf and Bluefin in the future but those acquisitions are not the cause of weakness in the UK or EMEA.”

On the first quarter results, Glaser blamed the economy of the UK and the aggressiveness of the London market for the weakness in EMEA and UK.

Meanwhile, chief financial officer Mark McGivney said there was a good pipeline for acquisitions.

As revealed by Insurance Times, Marsh returned to UK acquisitions last month with the Clark Thomson purchase. 

“We did do five transactions (first quarter) but they were relatively small, but our pipeline is good. And so our hope would be as move through the year M&A activity would pick up,” he said.

Glaser has also revealed the reasons behind the management job cuts during the first quarter analysts briefing.