Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company is a British-American multinational insurance advisor company. The company was founded in 2016, following a merger of the

Willis Group Willis Group Holdings plc was a multinational risk advisor, insurance brokerage and reinsurance brokerage company with its headquarters in the Willis Building in London until its merger of equals with financial services company Towers Watson i ...

and

Towers Watson Towers Watson & Co. was a global professional services firm. Its principal lines of business were risk management and human resource consulting. It also had actuarial and investment consulting practices. In January 2016, Towers Watson merged w ...

Overview

WTW operates in more than 140 countries and has a workforce of more than 40,000 employees. It joined the

Hedge Fund Standards Board The Standards Board for Alternative Investments (SBAI), formerly known as the Hedge Fund Standards Board, is an international standard-setting body for the alternative investment industry and sets the voluntary standard of best practices and pra ...

and follows the voluntary code of standards of best practice endorsed by its members.

History

The former Willis Towers Watson formed as a

merger of equals Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...

between

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

based

and Arlington based

. Towers Watson was formed as a merger between

Towers Perrin Towers Perrin was a professional services firm specializing in human resources and financial services consulting, which merged in January 2010 with Watson Wyatt to form Towers Watson. The firm was a provider of reinsurance intermediary services ...

and Watson Wyatt in 2009. WTW changed its Nasdaq stock ticker symbol from "WLTW" to "WTW" effective January 10, 2022.

Merger process

The companies announced the merger on June 30, 2015 in a deal valued at $18 billion. Willis Towers Watson would maintain its domicile in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

and list on the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed ...

. Later in 2015, the company moved its domicile to Virginia in the US and delisted from the NYSE and relisted on the NASDAQ. Willis Group exercised its right to acquire the remainder of Gras Savoye and agreed to purchase 85% of Miller, the leading London independent wholesale insurance broker.

Criticism

Critics of the deal pointed out that the original offer would not be beneficial to Towers Watson shareholders as they would receive a package of shares and a special cash dividend that is valued at $125.13 per share. This value was 9.3% lower than the trading price of Towers Watson's stock was at the time of the announcement of the deal. The revised offer in November increased the value to $130.26 per share, which was still lower than the trading price of Towers Watson shares at the time of the announcement. The deal also gave Willis Group shareholders more control despite the company having a lower market capitalization compared to Towers Watson. In an open letter, investment adviser

Driehaus Capital Management Richard Herman Driehaus (; July 28, 1942 – March 9, 2021) was an American fund manager, businessman and philanthropist. He was the founder, chief investment officer, and chairman of Driehaus Capital Management LLC, based in Chicago. The philant ...

urged Towers Watson shareholders to vote against a proposed merger. Driehaus argued that Towers Watson was worth between 39% and 53% more as a standalone company than by merging with Willis Group. It was also reported that Towers Watson CEO John Haley had disposed of his shares in the company in early March 2015 while the merger negotiations were ongoing. On 18 November 2015, the board of Towers Watson failed to get enough investor support for the deal, with only 40% of shareholders voting in favor of the proposed merger with Willis Group. This rejection led to Willis Group increasing its special cash dividend for Towers Watson shareholders to USD $10 per share. This revised offer was approved by Towers Watson shareholders on 11 December 2015.

Completion of merger

The merger closed on January 5, 2016 once all regulatory approvals were received. Willis Towers Watson publicly announced their name change on January 5. Willis Group shareholders owned 50.1% while those of Towers Watson shareholders owned 49.9% of the combined company. On completion, Towers Watson CEO, John Haley, became the CEO, Willis Group CEO, Dominic Casserley, became the President and Deputy CEO while Willis Group Chairman, James McCann, became the chairman of the merged group with the twelve board seats shared equally between the two companies.

Called off acquisition by Aon

On 9 March 2020, Aon announced its planned acquisition of Willis Towers Watson for nearly $30 billion in an all-stock deal that would have created the world’s largest insurance broker. The deal was called off on 26 July 2021 after failing to reach agreement with the

US Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United Stat ...

Carl Hess becomes CEO

In August 2021, Carl Hess was selected as the company’s president and next CEO to succeed on January 1, 2022 upon John Haley’s retirement. A new global leadership team was also announced in August 2021. In January 2022, Carl Hess formally succeeded John Haley as CEO and Willis Towers Watson became WTW.

Activist stakes

Investors

Starboard Value Starboard Value is an American hedge fund that was founded in 2002 by Jeffrey Smith and Mark Mitchell with Smith serving as CEO.Butt, Rachel; Here are the 10 biggest activist money managers and some of their most impressive bets; Business Inside ...

and Elliott Management were reported to have taken substantial stakes in the company in 2021.

Acquisition of Butterwire

In July 2022, Willis Towers Watson acquired Butterwire, a FinTech provider of data analytics,

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...

(AI) and machine learning platforms.

References

External links

WTW
{{Authority control Financial services companies established in 2016 British companies established in 2016 Companies listed on the Nasdaq Financial services companies based in the City of London Tax inversions Risk management companies