Marsh expands in Texas with Wortham buy

Marsh L.L.C. is expanding its presence in Texas with the purchase of Houston-based brokerage Wortham Insurance & Risk Management.

Terms of the deal, which was announced Monday, were not disclosed. According to Business Insurance’s latest ranking, Wortham is the 35th largest broker of U.S. business with about $130 million in brokerage revenue and about 530 staff.

Privately owned Wortham’s business is split about 75% commercial retail, 16% employee benefits and about 8% personal lines.

On completion of the deal, Marsh will have an expanded footprint in Texas via Wortham’s Austin and Fort Worth offices. Marsh will merge its existing operations in Dallas, Houston and San Antonio with Wortham’s as well as its operations in New Orleans and Tulsa, Oklahoma, according to a Marsh statement.

The combined business will operate as Marsh Wortham with Richard M. Blades, currently chairman of Wortham, as its CEO. Mr. Blades will also be chairman of Marsh’s U.S. energy and power practice, the statement said. He will report to Martin South, president of Marsh’s U.S. and Canada division.

“Wortham’s clients will continue to work with their existing service team including having the flexibility to utilize their existing international brokers while gaining the benefit of access to the wide range of global capabilities and product offerings of Marsh,” Mr. Blades said in the statement.