Gallagher, a global insurance broking and HR consulting firm, has agreed to acquire Buck, a New York-headquartered provider of retirement, HR, and benefits consulting and administration services. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2023.
Founded in 1916 in New York as an actuarial consultancy, Buck has changed owners frequently since the turn of the millennium. The firm (named Buck Consultants at the time) was acquired by Mellon in 1997, then by ACS in 2005, and then Xerox 2010. In 2017, Xerox spun off its professional services arm as Conduent, with Buck becoming Conduent HR Services.
Conduent HR Services was in 2018 sold to H.I.G. Capital, which rebranded the consultancy as Buck.
Buck today has approximately 2,300 people across offices in the US, Canada, and UK.
Gallagher’s acquisition of Buck will strengthen its benefit services division and its suite of professional services – including defined benefits consulting, plan administration, defined contribution and executive benefit consulting, investment consulting, benefits strategy, compliance, employee engagement consulting, and total rewards optimization. The deal will also add “bSuite,” Buck’s proprietary software platform for benefits administration and employee engagement.
"Through the complementary strengths of Buck's defined benefit offerings, investment consulting, digital employee engagement platform, and international footprint, the acquisition will broaden, deepen, and enhance our client offerings,” said J. Patrick Gallagher, Jr, chairman, president, and CEO. “I look forward to welcoming the 2,300 new colleagues joining us as part of this transaction to our growing Gallagher family of professionals."
Gallagher is based in Chicago and has more than 39,000 people serving clients in more than 130 countries.
The firm in 2021 attempted to acquire select reinsurance, specialty, and retail brokerage operations from Willis Towers Watson (WTW) for $3.57 billion. That deal ultimately fell through after Aon and WTW abandoned their planned mega merger amid increasing dissent from competition watchdogs in the US and Europe.
Sourced from Consulting.us