UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-K
| ☒ | | Annual Report Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 |
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For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021
| ☐ | | Transition Report Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 |
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For the transition period from to
Commission file number 1-09761
ARTHUR J. GALLAGHER & CO.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
| Delaware | | 36-2151613 |
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| (State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) | | (I.R.S. Employer Identification Number) |
| 2850 Golf Road Rolling Meadows, Illinois | | 60008-4050 |
| (Address of principal executive offices) | | (Zip Code) |
Registrant’s telephone number, including area code (630) 773-3800
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
| Title of each class | | Trading Symbol(s) | | Name of each exchange on which registered |
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| Common Stock, par value $1.00 per share | | AJG | | New York Stock Exchange |
| Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None | | | | |
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☒ No ☐.
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ No ☒.
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No ☐.
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒ No ☐.
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or emerging growth company. See definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b‑2 of the Exchange Act.
| Large accelerated filer | ☒ | | Accelerated filer | ☐ |
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| Non-accelerated filer | ☐ | | Smaller reporting company | ☐ |
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| | | Emerging growth company | ☐ |
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 726(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report Yes ☒ No ☐.
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ☐ No ☒.
The aggregate market value of the voting common equity held by non-affiliates of the registrant, computed by reference to the last reported price at which the registrant’s common equity was sold on June 30, 2021 (the last day of the registrant’s most recently completed second quarter) was $25,186,468,000.
The number of outstanding shares of the registrant’s Common Stock, $1.00 par value, as of January 31, 2022 was 208,542,000.
Documents incorporated by reference: Portions of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.’s definitive 2022 Proxy Statement are incorporated by reference into this Form 10‑K in response to Part III to the extent described herein.
Information Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
This report contains certain statements related to future results, or states our intentions, beliefs and expectations or predictions for the future, which are forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements relate to expectations or forecasts of future events. Such statements use words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “contemplate,” “forecast,” “project,” “intend,” “plan,” “potential,” and other similar terms, and future or conditional tense verbs like “could,” “may,” “might,” “see,” “should,” “will” and “would.” You can also identify forward-looking statements by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. For example, we may use forward-looking statements when addressing topics such as: comments regarding the expected benefits of our acquisition of the Willis Towers Watson plc treaty reinsurance brokerage operations; the remaining twelve international deferred closings that require local regulatory approvals for such acquisition; the expected duration and costs of integration of such acquisition; market and industry conditions, including competitive and pricing trends; acquisition strategy including the expected size of our acquisition program; the expected impact of acquisitions and dispositions; the development and performance of our services and products; changes in the composition or level of our revenues or earnings; our cost structure and the size and outcome of cost-saving or restructuring initiatives; future capital expenditures; future debt levels and anticipated actions to be taken in connection with maturing debt; future debt to earnings ratios; the outcome of contingencies; dividend policy; pension obligations; cash flow and liquidity; capital structure and financial losses; future actions by regulators; the outcome of existing regulatory actions, audits, reviews or litigation; the impact of changes in accounting rules; financial markets; interest rates; foreign exchange rates; matters relating to our operations; income taxes, expectations regarding our investments, human capital management, including diversity and inclusion initiatives; environmental, social and governance matters, including climate-resilience products and services and carbon emissions; and integrating recent acquisitions. These forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from either historical or anticipated results depending on a variety of factors.
Potential factors from the acquisition of the Willis Towers Watson plc treaty reinsurance brokerage operations that could impact results include:
| • | Risks related to the integration of the operations, businesses and assets acquired in the acquisition into the Company; |
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| • | Risks related to retention of clients following completion of the acquisition; |
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| • | The possibility that the twelve remaining international deferred closings that are subject to local regulatory approval, and which are expected to close in the first and second quarters of 2022, are not closed on a timely basis or at all; |
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| • | Potential adverse reactions or changes to business or employee relationships, including those resulting from the completion of the acquisition; |
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| • | The possibility that our estimates of lost revenue in the operations acquired, are inaccurate and actual lost revenue is greater; |
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| • | The increased legal and regulatory complexity of entering additional geographic markets, including the risks associated with the labor and employment law frameworks in certain countries where the Company did not previously operate; |
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| • | Diversion of management’s attention from ongoing business operations and opportunities; |
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| • | The inability to retain certain key employees of the operations acquired in the acquisition or the Company; and |
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| • | That financial information subsequently presented for the business acquired in the acquisition in our subsequent public filing may be different from that presented herein. |
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Additional potential factors that could impact results include:
| • | The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, including its effect on the economy, our employees, our clients, the regulatory environment and our operations; |
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| • | A future economic downturn or unstable economic conditions, whatever the cause, including the stalling or reversal of economic recovery following COVID-19, or other factors like inflation, worsening international relations, a military conflict between Russia and Ukraine, tariffs, trade wars, political violence and unrest in the U.S. or around the world, or climate change and other long-term environmental, social and governance matters and global health risks; |
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| • | Volatility or declines in premiums or other adverse trends in the insurance industry; |
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| • | Competitive pressures, including as a result of innovation, in each of our businesses; |
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| • | Risks that could negatively affect the success of our acquisition strategy, including the impact of current economic uncertainty on our ability to source, review and price acquisitions, continuing consolidation in our industry and growing interest in acquiring insurance brokers on the part of private equity firms and newly public insurance brokers, which could make it more difficult to identify targets and could make them more expensive, the risk that we may not receive timely |
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| | regulatory approval of desired transactions, execution risks, integration risks, poor cultural fit, the risk of post-acquisition deterioration leading to intangible asset impairment charges, and the risk we could incur or assume unanticipated liabilities such as cybersecurity issues or those relating to violations of anti-corruption and sanctions laws; |
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| • | Failure to successfully and cost-effectively integrate recently acquired businesses and their operations or fully realize synergies from such acquisitions in the expected time frame; |
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| • | Cyber attacks or other cybersecurity incidents including the ransomware incident we publicly disclosed in September 2020; improper disclosure of confidential, personal or proprietary data; and changes to laws and regulations governing cybersecurity and data privacy; |
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| • | Risks arising from changes in U.S. or foreign tax laws, including the current U.S. president’s administration’s potential reversal of all or part of the U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act 2017 (which we refer to as the TCJA) and related regulations and the recent increase in U.K. corporate tax rates; |
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| • | Our failure to attract and retain experienced and qualified talent, including our senior management team; |
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| • | Risks arising from our international operations, including the risks posed by political and economic uncertainty in certain countries, (including the repercussions of a military conflict between Russia and Ukraine), risks related to maintaining regulatory and legal compliance across multiple jurisdictions (such as those relating to violations of anti-corruption, sanctions and privacy laws), rising global tensions and protectionism, and risks arising from the complexity of managing businesses across different time zones, languages, geographies, cultures and legal regimes that conflict with one another at times; |
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| • | Risks particular to our risk management segment, including wage inflation, staffing shortages, any slowing of the trend toward outsourcing claims administration, and the concentration of large amounts of revenue with certain clients; |
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| • | Risks particular to our benefit consulting operations, including risks to the business posed by potential changes to health legislation under the current U.S. president’s administration; |
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| • | The higher level of variability inherent in contingent and supplemental revenues versus standard commission revenues, particularly in light of the changed revenue recognition accounting standard; |
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| • | Sustained increases in the cost of employee benefits; |
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| • | A disaster or other significant disruption to business continuity; including natural disasters and political violence and unrest in the U.S. or elsewhere around the world; |
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| • | Damage to our reputation including as a result of environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters; |
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| • | Climate risks, including the risk of a systemic economic crisis and disruptions to our business caused by the transition to a low-carbon economy; |
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| • | Our failure to apply technology effectively in driving value for our clients through technology-based solutions, or failure to gain internal efficiencies and effective internal controls through the application of technology and related tools; |
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| • | Our failure to comply with regulatory requirements, including those related to governance and control requirements in particular jurisdictions, international sanctions, or a change in regulations or enforcement policies that adversely affects our operations (for example, relating to insurance broker compensation methods); |
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| • | Violations or alleged violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (which we refer to as FCPA), the U.K. Bribery Act 2010 or other anti-corruption laws and the Foreign Account Tax Compliance provisions of the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act (which we refer to as FATCA); |
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| • | The outcome of any existing or future investigation, review, regulatory action or litigation; |
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| • | Unfavorable determinations related to contingencies and legal proceedings; |
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| • | Significant changes in foreign exchange rates; |
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| • | Changes to our financial presentation from new accounting estimates and assumptions; |
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| • | Intellectual property risks; |
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| • | Risks related to our legacy clean energy investments, including intellectual property claims, environmental and product liability claims, environmental compliance costs and the risk of disallowance by the Internal Revenue Service (which we refer to as the IRS) of previously claimed tax credits; |
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| • | The risk that our outstanding debt adversely affects our financial flexibility and restrictions and limitations in the agreements and instruments governing our debt; |
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| • | The risk of credit rating downgrades; |
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| • | The risk we may not be able to receive dividends or other distributions from subsidiaries; |
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| • | The risk of share ownership dilution when we issue common stock as consideration for acquisitions and for other reasons; and |
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| • | Volatility of the price of our common stock. |
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Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including the risk factors referred to above, and are currently, or in the future could be, amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our future performance and actual results or outcomes may differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of, and are based on information available to us on, the date of the applicable document. Many of the factors that will determine these results are beyond our ability to control or predict. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to us or any person acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained or referred to in this section. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date that they are made, and we do not undertake any obligation to update any such statements or release publicly any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this report or to reflect new information, future or unexpected events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law or regulation. In addition, historical, current and forward-looking sustainability-related statements may be based on standards for measuring progress that are still developing, internal controls and processes that continue to evolve, and assumptions that are subject to change in the future.
A detailed discussion of the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our published expectations is contained under the heading “Risk Factors” in this report and any other reports we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the future.
Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.
Annual Report on Form 10-K
For the Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2021
Index
Part I
filings.tools