Thousands of jobs are on the line after US financial services giant Marsh & McLennan sealed a £4.3bn takeover of UK insurance broker Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT). Shares in JLT, which traces its roots back to a Hong Kong-based conglomerate that traded opium 180 years ago, shot up more than 30pc on Tuesday after the deal was announced. The takeover, which has the backing of the JLT board, will net senior management payouts of £100m. Dominic Burke, who has been running JLT for 13 years, said it was a "bittersweet day, and for me an emotional one" but promised that the FTSE 250 company would prosper under its new owners. However Marsh said it expected to cut 2pc-5pc of the combined group's 75,000 workforce, meaning as many as 3,750 jobs could go as a result of the move. The company, which has a market cap of £31bn and owns consultancy giant Mercer, said the redundancies would come from a "broad range" of units including finance, HR, IT services, legal and administrative support. Marsh has around 65,000 staff while JLT has 10,000. The deal emerged a day after British racing team JLT Condor, which the insurer has sponsored for five years, announced its closure after failing to find a new sponsor.
Marsh & McLennan has agreed to acquire UK - based insurance broker Jardine Lloyd Thomson for a reported £ 4.3bn ( $ 5.7bn ) . Shares in JLT rose roughly 30 % on the news . The combined entities will have a workforce of approximately 75,000 . US - based Marsh , however , says it expects to cut between 2 % and 5 % of personnel . The cuts will come from broad range of divisions , including finance , insurance and IT , the company noted .