Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. (NYSE:MMC) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

John Doyle: Yes. Thanks, Meyer. I would say, as I said, obviously, the macro economy remains uncertain, and there is a fair amount of questions about it. What I would say is mature markets have relatively resilient, but inflation of cost persists Central banks are — their primary mission is to reduce inflation. But we do see a meaningful risk of recession, and we’re prepared for that sure. And some markets are in recession now. But I’ll ask Nick, Martine, again, I think Oliver Wyman historically has been a bit more sensitive to GDP and Mercer’s Career business has as well. But Nick, maybe you could share some thoughts on the economy and what you think that might mean to our business.

Nick Studer : Yes. Thank you, John. Thank you, Meyer. It’s — as I said earlier on, I think it is a wide range of economic paths that I see different of our sectors do react differently — and some of our industries have been having a pretty tough time since sort of through and since the pandemic. Some have seen little spurts of growth. We’ve been growing in some sectors, for example, Aerospace and Defense, where we made a significant acquisition last year, which we see as being more robust through the cycle. I do think that a tough economic outlook tends to result in slower growth for Oliver Wyman. But as I said earlier, we’ve been trying to develop a wider set of through-the-cycle offerings. And sometimes when the questions all change, people need help answering them. So, it’s definitely not a correlation anymore. I think it probably — that correlation has declined over time and it’s pretty low now.

John Doyle: Thank you, Nick. Martine, maybe you can share some thoughts on Mercer Career?

Martine Ferland: Yes. absolutely. And over the last few years, we have focused also on diversifying our portfolio of businesses, and we’ve improved our business mix a little bit away from the more discretionary nature of the business, particularly in Career with more recurring type of work. And I would add to that, that with our — with the current environment, there’s also lots of demand, as Nick just said. You look at volatile capital markets, for example, drives demand for advice in our defined benefit and our different completion businesses well-funded, the fund benefit plan on the back of high interest rates and also creating demand for pension risk transfer. We talked about tight labor markets, the different — the change in the ways of working, the upcoming of digital health and technology in the workplace. It’s all driving demand and countering the more traditional, I would say, of previous year’s impact of direct correlation to GDP, as we discussed earlier.

John Doyle: Thanks, Martine. So, we, of course, Meyer, are not immune to economic growth, but we’re a resilient business. And again, we have a track record of performing across economic cycles. And at the moment, demand remains strong. Do you have a follow-up?

Meyer Shields: I do. Just a quick one. That was very helpful. With regard to Oliver Wyman, in the past, I guess, you’ve communicated that Oliver Wyman, when you have strong growth, there could be some pressure on consulting margins just because of the nature of that business. And we didn’t see that in this quarter. I’m wondering, is that context of lower margins of Oliver Wyman less true now?

John Doyle: No, it’s not less true. But again, keep in mind, Mercer had its best quarter of growth. It’s a bigger business than Oliver Wyman and it’s best quarter of growth in 15 years. So that’s the reason you didn’t see anything there.

Operator: And our next question comes from the line of Scott Heleniak with RBC Capital Markets.

Scott Heleniak: Good morning. Just at Marsh, just wondering if you could comment what’s driving double-digit growth there at EMEA and Latin America? I know that’s been strong for a few quarters, but can you give more detail on that? Is there any new areas we’re seeing growth? And is there much of a benefit from rate increases there?