Gallagher Reports Improved 4Q Results

Insurance brokerage and risk management services provider Arthur J. Gallagher AJG reported improved revenue and profitability in the fourth quarter of 2009. Organic revenue in brokerage was off 1.1% on a year-over-year basis, a good result in light of the 5.5% year-over-year decline in the third quarter of 2009, and significant further declines in insurance premium rates through the end of 2009. On a sequential basis, organic brokerage revenue (excluding acquisitions and other special effects) rose from the third quarter to the fourth quarter, in contrast to the decline in 2008.