Marsh Denies Planning Bid for Benfield to Counter Aon

Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc. , the world’s largest insurance brokerage by market value, is not planning to make a counterbid for U.K.-listed reinsurance broker Benfield Group Ltd, a Marsh spokeswoman said Tuesday.

“MMC has no interest in putting forward a counterproposal for Benfield,” according to an e-mail received from the spokeswoman.

A report in the Sunday Telegraph two days ago said Marsh was assessing whether to make a counterbid after rival Aon Corp offered $1.6 billion for Benfield last month in an attempt to create the world’s largest reinsurance brokerage.

(Reporting by Lilla Zuill; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)