Aon, Hewitt Complete Merger

As planned, Aon Corporation completed its merger of Hewitt Associates, Inc. with a subsidiary of Aon, creating Aon Hewitt late in the day Friday.

The merger was first announced in July (see Hewitt Associates, Inc. to Merge with Aon Corporation).  

According to an Aon Corporation news release, Aon Hewitt has revenues of $4.3 billion and 29,000 employees globally. Combined revenues for fiscal year 2009 consist of 49% from consulting services, 40% from benefits administration and 11% from HR business process outsourcing, creating more resources for colleagues and more opportunities to serve clients with capabilities in greater than 120 countries around the world.  

The company said complementary product and service portfolio across consulting, benefits administration and HR business process outsourcing will provide for significant cross-sell opportunities including the marketing of Hewitt’s benefits administration and HR business process outsourcing services to Aon’s clients, as well as the marketing of Aon’s risk services product portfolio to Hewitt’s clients.  

The transaction is expected to generate approximately $355 million in annual cost savings across Aon Hewitt in 2013, primarily from reduction in back-office areas, public company costs, management overlap, and leverage of technology platforms.  

Primarily through anticipated synergies and greater economies of scale, Aon Hewitt expects to deliver improved operational performance and a long-term operating margin of 20%.  

The merger is expected to deliver $1.5 billion of value creation for stockholders on a discounted cash flow basis, after subtracting the purchase price of the transaction

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