123 N. Wacker Drive, Chicago 60606; 312-701-3000
Web site: www.aon.com
Founded: 1979
Employees: 40,000; 4,230 in Illinois
Year-end: Dec. 31
Foreign sales: 41 percent of $5.75 billion
Chief executive: Patrick G. Ryan, 60, since 1982
Cash compensation: $2,209,693, down 25 percent
Options granted: $2,364,790, up 99 percent
Options, stock appreciation rights exercised: None
Shares owned: 20,481,873 of 168 million
Largest shareholder: Patrick G. Ryan, 12.2 percent
Stock: 365-day close as of April 15
High: $68.19
Low: $41.75
April 15: $67.56
April 17, 1998, value of $1,000 in company stock:
Purchased 1997: $1,617
Purchased 1993: $3,145
Aon is an insurance services holding company with operations in life, accident and health, consulting, brokerage and specialty property-casualty lines.
The world’s second-largest insurance broker benefited in 1997 from recent acquisitions. Operating income rose 16 percent as Aon realized cost savings faster than anticipated from the $1.2 billion purchase of broker Alexander & Alexander Services.
Profits have been under pressure throughout the industry and consolidation appears to be a way of life. Aon will likely add to its international portfolio of companies. It has picked up Spanish and French firms since the first of the year.
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A guide to the Top 100 profiles
The Tribune’s business staff profiles the Chicago area’s Top 100 companies, based on market capitalization as of April 15. Here’s a quick primer on the information you’ll find:
– The CEO’s cash compensation, including bonus and other compensation paid in 1997, along with the change from the prior year.
– The figure for the CEO’s stock holdings includes shares the CEO had the right to acquire within 60 days of the proxy statement’s issuance.
– The company’s largest shareholder.
– Estimated current values of stock options granted the CEO, and the change from the prior year, as well as options and stock appreciation rights exercised during the year. In most cases, the value of options granted is based on an assumption of a 5 percent annual rate of stock price growth, or is determined using the Black-Scholes option pricing model.
– Theoretical total-return investment results for shares purchased for $1,000 a year ago and five years ago. The date on which these calculations are based is April 17. The results assume reinvestment of dividends on a quarterly basis.
The information in the profiles was obtained from the following sources:
– Company reports, including annual reports, public stock offering prospectuses and proxy statements.
– Interviews with company officials.
– Reports by securities analysts.
– News reports.
– Bloomberg News, New York.
– “Hoover’s Handbook,” The Reference Press Inc., Austin, Texas.
