Benfield to double account with EW Blanch buy

Expanding London market broking group Benfield Greig, rather than one of the big three mega-brokers, plans to acquire EW Blanch, best known as a US reinsurance specialist. The US$179mn takeover marks another significant leap forward for Benfield Greig and brings to an end a period of great uncertainty for EW Blanch, a highly successful reinsurance broker but victim of a poor financial year in 2000, partly due to problems with the Unicover workers’ compensation debacle.