S&P REVISES OUTLOOK ON WILLIS TO STABLE

Rating agency Standard & Poor's has revised its outlook on global broker Willis to stable from positive. It has affirmed the company's 'BBB-' counterparty credit rating. S&P said that the reassessment was a result of a lower organic growth rate in H1 2012 than had been achieved by the broker's peers; S&P expects some "margin compression" in the second half and that the Willis management's strategic initiatives to increase revenue would take longer to mature than it had previously expected. S&P said that "we revised the outlook on Willis to positive in 2011 predicated primarily on our expectations of meaningful improvements in the leverage profile and successful execution of its revenue and expense initiatives". S&P still believes that those initiatives could build "a robust sales and operating platform", it now thinks that this will take longer to achieve than it had previously thought. In H1 2012 Willis achieved organic growth of 2%, but there was a 3% decline in North America. Its competitors had reported positive growth in that region.