JLT'S BURKE: LONDON REMAINS VITAL BUT NOT AT EXPENSE OF OTHER PARTS OF THE BUSINESS…

JLT’s chief executive, Dominic Burke, has insisted London remains vital to the long-term success of the broking group, but said this would not be “at the expense” of other parts of the business. Burke was speaking to Insurance Day following JLT’s earlier announcement it would be rolling out a group transformation programme aimed at delivering cost savings of £40m ($55.2m) a year by 2020. Burke said the programme would affect “all of our businesses across the world” and incur a one-off cost of £45m, of which £33m will be booked in the 2018 financial year. The programme has been introduced alongside the reorganisation of JLT into three divisions: specialty, reinsurance and employee benefits. The group reported an underlying profit before tax of £191.5m for 2017, an 11% year-on-year increase, as it reported revenue of more than £1.38bn, a 10% increase on 2016. It is aiming for more than 5% organic revenue growth in 2018.