Aon PLC Earnings Call Insights: Mid-Single-Digits Improvement and Brokerage Earnings Power

Aon PLC (NYSE:AON) recently reported its fourth quarter earnings and discussed the following topics in its earnings conference call.

Mid-Single-Digits Improvement

Michael Nannizzi – Goldman Sachs: Christa, so did you say – you said mid-single-digits improvement in consulting earnings, is that correct?

Christa Davies – EVP and CFO: Yeah. So, HR Solutions’ operating income will grow mid-single-digits in 2013, and we also said that we would expect margin expansion in 2013.

Michael Nannizzi – Goldman Sachs: So, I mean, in order to have double-digit earnings per share growth on the Company, what do you need from brokerage or deployment to get there?

Christa Davies – EVP and CFO: Michael, we’re giving that level of guidance. Really we’ve invested significantly in 2012 and we expect that free cash flow growth is really going to be driven by improved growth in operating margin expansion, decreased uses of cash, and significant improvements in cash flow from reduced tax rates. As we think about EPS growth, it’s really improvement in operating margin in both Risk and HR. It’s affected deployment of capital, as you’ve seen, during 2012 through share buyback, and continued improvements in effective tax rate.

Gregory C. Case – President and CEO: I’ll just add, Michael, as you think about our portfolios come together, the Risk Solutions part of the business there (as first), Aon Benfield, are a little ahead of where Aon Hewitt is and HR Solutions, which has sort of come together in terms of overall growth and development of the business and that’s what you’re seeing develop here.