Benfield Group was a leading independent

reinsurance Reinsurance is insurance that an insurance company purchases from another insurance company to insulate itself (at least in part) from the risk of a major claims event. With reinsurance, the company passes on ("cedes") some part of its own ins ...

and

risk In simple terms, risk is the possibility of something bad happening. Risk involves uncertainty about the effects/implications of an activity with respect to something that humans value (such as health, well-being, wealth, property or the environm ...

intermediary. Customers included most of the world's major insurance and reinsurance companies as well as government entities and global corporations. A former constituent of the

FTSE 250 Index The FTSE 250 Index ( "Footsie") is a capitalisation-weighted index consisting of the 101st to the 350th largest companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. Promotions and demotions to and from the index occur quarterly in March, June, Septem ...

, the company has been a division of Aon Corporation since November 2008.

History

The company was established as a Lloyd's broker in 1973 as Benfield, Lovick, and Rees & Company (BLR). In 1988, a management buyout led to the formation of Benfield Group.Benfield : Group Profile and History
/ref> In the 1990s and early 2000s, the company grew through a series of mergers with Ellinger Heath Western, Greig Fester, and E.W. Blanch. The company was first listed on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

in 2003. On 22 August 2008, Chicago-based Aon Corporation announced that it had agreed to acquire Benfield Group. The $1.43 billion deal was completed on 28 November 2008. Aon's reinsurance broking business continues to operate under the name Aon Benfield.

Operations

Benfield Group was based in London and incorporated in

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. It had an international network of more than 50 offices in the US, UK,

Continental Europe Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous continent of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by ...

and Asia. Benfield was a reinsurance broker, acting as an intermediary between reinsurance companies and reinsurance purchasers. More than 90% of its revenues came from its reinsurance brokerage business. Through its subsidiary, Benfield Corporate Risk, Benfield also operated in the primary insurance brokerage space, catering to the complex risk management and transfer needs of corporate entities in selected industries.

References

Insurance companies of the United Kingdom Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange Financial services companies established in 1973 1973 establishments in England {{insurance-company-stub