Earnings Call Transcript
Aon plc (AON)
Earnings Call Transcript - AON Q1 2021
Operator, Operator
Good morning and thank you for holding. Welcome to Aon plc First Quarter 2021 Conference Call. At this time, all parties will be in a listen-only mode until the question-and-answer portion of today’s call. I would also like to remind all parties that this call is being recorded. If anyone has an objection, you may disconnect your line at this time. It is important to note that some of the comments in today’s call may constitute certain statements that are forward-looking in nature as defined by the Private Securities Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties and could cause actual results to differ materially from historical results or those anticipated. Information concerning risk factors that could cause such differences are described in the press release covering our first quarter 2021 results, as well as having been posted on our website. Now, it is my pleasure to turn the call over to Greg Case, CEO of Aon plc.
Greg Case, CEO
Thank you, Operator, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to our first quarter 2021 conference call. I’m joined by Christa Davies, our CFO; and Eric Andersen, our President. As in previous quarters, we posted a detailed financial presentation on our website. I’d like to start by acknowledging the tremendous work of our colleagues across the firm. Our team continues to find ways to get back not just to normal, but even better than before, and we like to call it the new better. The idea of the new better started in the second half of last year with a series of regional and local client coalitions. There are now ten coalitions of leading companies around the world that we formed to explore the societal and economic implications of the pandemic. The group rejects the idea of accepting a suboptimal new normal and is working here to find a new better. The work is ongoing and continues to offer meaningful insights into how leading organizations will work, travel, and convene in the year ahead. And we’re translating those insights into new solutions that are designed to accelerate recovery from COVID-19. For instance, we know that widespread global vaccine distribution is the key part of the solution and one that Aon is enabling. Let me describe, recognizing limitations with current supply chain solutions Aon colleagues from Commercial Risk, Reinsurance, and Health Solutions collaborated with insurance, reinsurance, insure tech, and supply chain industry partners to develop a groundbreaking solution that uses sensors and analytics in the transportation and storage of vaccines. The sensors provide transparent real-time data and alerts if the temperature of the vaccine shipment falls outside the manufacturer’s range, potentially allowing for mitigation efforts and helping to maximize the number of doses administered to the public. It’s just another example of how we’re creating innovative solutions to move our industry and society forward. We’re also donating all 2021 revenue from the solution to an international organization working to help end the human and economic toll caused by the pandemic. Turning now to financials, our global team delivered outstanding results across each of our key financial metrics, including 6% organic revenue growth, a very strong start to the year on top of 5% organic in Q1 2020, substantial operating margin expansion of 170 basis points, 16% EPS growth, and 91% free cash flow growth. Within organic revenue, we continue to see strength in our core, driven by strong retention and net new business generation, and overall growth within more discretionary areas of revenue, with some areas coming back faster than others. Commercial Risk delivered 9% organic, an outstanding result with very strong new business growth and growth in project related work and double-digit growth in transaction liability. Reinsurance delivered 6% growth, with strong net new business in treaty and double-digit growth in facultative placements. Retirement Solutions delivered 5% growth, and I would highlight strength in core retirement and double-digit growth in human capital. Health Solutions growth of 4% was driven by strength in the core offset by pressure in project work. One of the areas we’re seeing a little slower bounce back is data and analytics, which continue to see pressure from the travel and events practice globally, resulting in a 2% organic decline compared to the prior Q1 quarter's pre-pandemic results. These results are an improvement from our Q4 earnings call outlook. During the quarter, we saw better-than-expected macroeconomic growth, which positively impacted client buying behavior. Looking forward, if macroeconomic conditions continue to be strong, we would expect mid single-digit or greater organic revenue growth for the full year 2021. And while our Q1 results demonstrate that our Aon United strategy is driving innovative solutions that address our clients’ biggest challenges, we keep seeing signs that we must move faster. We see our clients justifiably focused on the economic impact of COVID-19, but they’re also increasingly focused on other challenges like climate change, supply chain disruption, reimagining and reconfiguring how and where work gets done, the growing health wealth gap, and cyber. Our recent Cyber Risk report highlighted findings from our proprietary cyber quotient evaluation, a comprehensive assessment of Cyber Risk maturity. The 2020 data tells us that organizations across regions and industries are only maintaining a basic level of cyber readiness. Specifically, only two out of five organizations report they’re prepared to navigate new exposures and only 17% report having adequate application security measures in place. In our recent Gray Swan report, we looked back at 40 years of corporate crises, analyzing 300 examples that show the significant impact on shareholder value due to lack of preparedness. The total impact represents $1.2 trillion in destroyed value, and in 10% of the events, 50% of shareholder value was lost. These risks and challenges are exactly where we want to help our clients assess and prepare for. Another great example is that our human capital and commercial risk teams realized that their client in the life sciences med-tech space had not done an assessment or quantification of cyber risk for their business or products. Our team analyzed risks across infrastructure, technology, vendor, and digitally enabled products and quantified potential losses or impacts as reputation, business interruption, or hack from their related devices. In response to this prioritized and quantified risk assessment, our clients strengthened their own security measures and changed their insurance coverage, increasing their preparedness and reducing potential future volatility to their business, a topic that’s more critical than ever for companies in the life sciences industry. Looking forward, this is a process and a solution offering that makes innovative cyber solutions more accessible to our clients in the life sciences space. As we look to our pending combination with Willis Towers Watson, we’re confident their insights and capabilities will be a compelling catalyst to this work. And this is just one example out of thousands where we see the potential for the pending combination with Aon and Willis Towers Watson teams to drive innovation based on forward-looking analytics and insight. As we’ve brought together the executive committee that will be in place after the close of the combination, the potential is clearer than ever. We have an opportunity to be more relevant to clients at a time when they need us most. Another example, our Aon team is currently advising a client on the integration of their largest transaction to-date, a complex global merger that’s moving very quickly. Colleagues from data analytics, retirement, health and benefits, and human capital came together to advise our client on harmonizing their people programs while balancing synergies and deal objectives to drive employee engagement and retention, as well as a shared vision from day one. Our client is relying on Aon to help them protect their greatest asset, their people. We know that the combination with Willis Towers Watson will enable us to bring together our combined capabilities, as each company’s client insight around health, retirement, and engagement will improve and accelerate our ability to deliver projects like these for clients. In summary, our first quarter results demonstrate the continued success of our strategy and position us with momentum to drive improvement on our key metrics over the course of the year, building on the track record of progress that we’ve delivered over the past decade. The events of 2021 continue to highlight unmet need and growing demand from clients around their biggest challenges, which we know are best addressed by our one firm and United strategy. Our ability to address client needs and accelerate innovation will only get better in our pending combination with Willis Towers Watson, which continues to increase our commitment and excitement to the potential of the combined firm. Now I’d like to turn the call over to Christa for her thoughts on our financials and long-term outlook for continued shareholder value creation. Christa?
Christa Davies, CFO
Thanks so much, Greg, and good morning, everyone. As Greg mentioned, we delivered a strong operational financial performance in the first quarter to start the year, highlighted by 6% organic revenue growth that translated into double-digit growth in operating income, earnings per share, and free cash flow. Our Aon United strategy has enabled continued growth across our key financial metrics. We look forward to building on this momentum through the rest of 2021 and our pending combination with Willis Towers Watson. As I further reflect on the quarter, we delivered organic revenue growth of 6%, driven by ongoing strength in our core business, with an uneven recovery in our more discretionary areas. I would also note that total reported revenue was up 10%, including the favorable impact from changes in FX primarily driven by a weaker U.S. dollar versus the euro. Second, we delivered strong operational improvement with operating income growth of 15% and operating margin expansion of 170 basis points to 37.4%. Stepping back, our goal is to deliver sustainable operating margin expansion over the course of a full year, as there can be volatility quarter-to-quarter given the seasonality of our business and tiny expenses including long-term investment and growth. In Q1, margin expansion was helped by two factors. First, organic revenue growth exceeded our Q4 outlook due to the impact of macroeconomic factors and polite buying behavior. Second, Q1 2020 had higher expenses in areas like T&E and investments in the business, which made for an easier comparable when compared to our expectations for the rest of 2021. Looking to the rest of 2021, we anticipate investment in the business and some potential resumption of T&E later in the year. Looking forward to closely passing of expenses for the balance of 2021, as we described last year, we reduced certain discretionary expenses at the onset of the pandemic, given the significant macroeconomic uncertainty, and then returned to somewhat more normalized levels of spend in the back half of the year, as macroeconomic conditions improved and the outlook stabilized. In 2021 compared to 2020, we expect approximately $200 million less expense to be recognized in the fourth quarter, offset by approximately $135 million more expense in Q2 and $65 million more expense in Q3. Put another way, we expect $135 million of expense to move from Q4 to Q2 and $65 million of expense to move from Q4 to Q3 when comparing to our expectations for the remainder of 2021 to prior year results prior to any growth occurring. This shift, representing about 2% of our annual cost base, is primarily due to the actions we took and highlighted last year, including the reduction of the discretionary expenses including variable compensation in Q2 and Q3 of 2020. This shift also spreads our expense base more evenly across quarters, so we still do expect the occasional variability and lumpiness in expenses. This change will have an impact on quarterly margins, reducing margins in Q2 and Q3, and increasing them in Q4. However, it does not change our expectation of full year margin expansion for 2021. As we stated previously, our goal is to deliver sustainable margin expansion over the course of each full year, driven by accelerating revenue growth, portfolio mix shift to higher growth higher margin businesses, and leverage from Aon Business Services. Aon Business Services is focused on innovation as well as effectiveness. Recently our Aon Business Services team saw an opportunity to improve premium accounting with a blockchain solution. The team worked with a carrier partner and the insurance industry standard-setting group to design and develop a clearinghouse for premium transactions. This process has been live since the 1st of January 2021 and has over 13,000 transactions executed. It’s already improving the speed at which errors are identified and resolved. Over time, we expect our major carrier partners and other brokers to join the platform. We see this as a significant opportunity to improve the client experience with higher quality and reduce inefficiencies across the industry. As with other Aon Business Services process improvements, efficiencies in this new blockchain process enable our colleagues to spend more time with clients and on high value-added activities. Turning back to the results of the quarter, we translated strong operational performance into EPS growth of 16%, as shown in our earnings material. FX translation was a favorable impact of approximately $0.18 in the quarter. If currency remains stable at today’s rates, we would expect a $0.04 per share favorable impact in Q2, a $0.02 per share favorable impact in Q3, and a $0.01 per share favorable impact in Q4. Finally, moving to cash and capital allocation. Free cash flow increased 91% to $532 million, primarily driven by strong operational improvements, a decrease in restructuring cash outlays and a decrease in CapEx. I would note that we do expect CapEx for the full year to increase modestly as we invest in technology to drive business growth. Looking forward, we expect to drive free cash flow growth over the long-term, building on our 10-year track record of 14% CAGR growth and free cash flow, including 64% growth to $2.6 billion in free cash flow in 2020. We remain incredibly excited about the long-term cash flow potential of the pending combination. We make capital allocation decisions based on our ROIC framework highlighted by a $50 million share purchase in the first quarter. As a reminder, Q1 is our seasonally smallest quarter for free cash flow, due primarily to incentive compensation payments. We also repaid $400 million of term debt in February. Looking forward, we expect to remain highly focused on closing and then successfully integrating our combination with Willis Towers Watson. Following that, we expect to continue to invest organically and inorganically in innovative content and capabilities in priority areas to service our clients unmet needs. We remain very confident in the strength of our balance sheet and manage liquidity risk through a well-laddered debt maturity profile. In the near-term, we expect to continue to manage our leverage ratios conservatively and return to our past practice of growing debt as the EBITDA grows over the long-term. As I look towards our pending combination with Willis Towers Watson, we remain incredibly excited about the potential for growth in innovative solutions for clients and the shareholder value creation opportunity. We are continuing to work collaboratively with the appropriate regulators to gain approvals and we’ve offered remedies. We continue to anticipate $800 million of cost synergies, taking into account the remedies offered. We would expect to allocate any divestiture proceeds according to our ROIC framework in which share buyback continues to be our highest return investment. We are working towards the close in the first half of 2021, subject to regulatory approval. In summary, our first quarter results reflect continued progress building on a decade of momentum, driven by our Aon United strategy and underpinned by our Aon Business Services operational platform. We remain incredibly excited about closing our pending combination and beginning the integration process with Willis Towers Watson, which will continue to enable long-term shareholder value creation. With that, I’ll turn the call back over to the operator, and we’d be delighted to take your questions.
Operator, Operator
Thank you. Okay. Our first question comes from Suneet Kamath from Citi. Your line is now open.
Suneet Kamath, Analyst
Thanks and good morning. So last year you guys pulled your guidance for the merger when you pulled your Aon standalone guidance. But now that you’ve re-established guidance on a standalone basis, can you provide some thoughts on your expectations for guidance for the merger?
Greg Case, CEO
So, Suneet, appreciate it. As we’ve said before when we got together as the pandemic, we pulled guidance overall. What we said today as we think about Aon, obviously, we’re talking about mid single-digit or greater certainly if macroeconomic conditions continue. I remind everybody that before the pandemic we talked about a combined mid single-digit or greater and we plan to give an update on that when we complete the combination.
Suneet Kamath, Analyst
Okay. And then just focusing on the expense guidance, I guess, for Aon on a standalone basis. Christa, I think you said, you’ve called out a couple of things that are moving from quarter-to-quarter, but is there an assumed underlying kind of growth rate in expenses, as we think about 2021 versus last year? And if so, can you give us a sense of what that growth rate is?
Christa Davies, CFO
Yeah. So, Suneet, this is a great question and thank you for asking. What you’re really seeing is just $200 million coming out of Q4 and then of that $135 million goes into Q2 and $65 million goes into Q3. Suneet, that is before growth, and so you should assume growth is built on top of that, and we haven’t given that growth rate. But what I would say is, it’s in the context of full year margin expansion for 2021 on top of a track record of, as you know, Suneet, over the last 10 years of 890 basis points of expansion.
Suneet Kamath, Analyst
Got it. And then just the last one for me is on the free cash flow. As you mentioned, Q1 is typically your lowest quarter, but the growth was quite strong this quarter. Was there anything sort of unusual from a timing perspective, and maybe something was pulled forward in Q1 or just want to get some color on that?
Christa Davies, CFO
Yeah. I mean, we do expect to drive free cash flow growth annually over the long-term building on our track record of 14% CAGR over the last 10 years. I mean Q1 free cash flow was exceptionally strong driven by operating income growth, and given our pending combination with Willis Towers Watson and especially the impact of free cash flow relating to achieving the $800 million of cost synergies, we’re not providing standalone guidance for Aon at this time. But we do remain incredibly excited for the long-term cash flow potential of the pending combination.
Suneet Kamath, Analyst
Okay. Thanks.
Operator, Operator
Thank you. And our next question comes from Elyse Greenspan from Wells Fargo. Your line is now open.
Elyse Greenspan, Analyst
Hi. Thanks. Good morning. My first question is to clarify that you are reaffirming the $800 million of expenses for the deals, even with the remedies or divestitures that have been proposed to regulators. Is that correct, Christa?
Christa Davies, CFO
That is correct, Elyse.
Elyse Greenspan, Analyst
Okay. Great. And then my second question, I’m not sure how much detail you guys want to go into and you obviously read in the press in terms of what divestitures might have been offered up? I know there was a $1.8 trillion kind of divestiture cap included within the merger. Is there any way that you could speak to that and give us a sense of whether you would be willing to go a certain amount above that level or any color you can give us in reference to the $1.8 billion that was laid out with the merger?
Christa Davies, CFO
So, Elyse, we’re not going to speculate on remedies. We have confirmed that we’ll put remedies. We’re continuing to work collaboratively with regulators and we continue to anticipate, as I mentioned, the $800 million of cost synergies considering the remedies offered. And we’d expect to allocate any divestiture proceeds according to our ROIC framework in which share buyback continues to be our highest return activity.
Elyse Greenspan, Analyst
Okay. And then on the tax rate, I was interested in how your tax rate was impacted by guilty and beat the last couple of years? And then also on the tax side the doubling the guilty as Biden has proposed have a tangible impact on your tax rate all else equal?
Christa Davies, CFO
So, Elyse, we’re not providing tax guidance moving forward. However, looking back historically, there can be a positive or negative impact from discrete items in a quarter; our historical underlying rate over the last four years has been 18%.
Elyse Greenspan, Analyst
And then one last one, you guys have said that Q1 had a tough comp and then, obviously, the macroeconomic environment improved. Perhaps, you have exited at 6% for the quarter. When we think about the mid single-digit organic outlook of greater, does it feel like to you that four or three quarters just assuming the economy continued to improve should be greater than the Q1, given that we would get the better economy impacting organic as we go through the year?
Greg Case, CEO
I want to emphasize, Elyse, that looking back at Q1 last year, which was before the pandemic, we were able to report a 6% growth, indicating a strong start to the year and reflecting our momentum. We're not providing specific guidance beyond anticipating mid single-digit growth for the remainder of the year, assuming macroeconomic conditions remain favorable. Notably, within the Commercial Risk segment, we saw 9% organic growth, Reinsurance at 6%, Retirement at 5%, and Health at 4%. This marks a solid beginning to the year with positive momentum. As Christa mentioned earlier, the data analytics segment faced some challenges compared to a pre-pandemic quarter due to restrictions on travel and events, but we expect it to rebound strongly. Therefore, if the macroeconomic conditions remain stable, we are optimistic about achieving mid single-digit growth or better.
Elyse Greenspan, Analyst
Great. Thanks for the color.
Operator, Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Jimmy Bhullar from JPMorgan. Your line is now open.
Jimmy Bhullar, Analyst
Hi. Good morning. So, first, I just had a question on your overall view of the potential accretion from the Willis deal. I think when you have previously talked publicly you’ve assumed no dispositions, and obviously, you’re going to have to do some dispositions, and your $800 million target seems unchanged on expense savings. How do you think about the overall accretion from the deal and do you think you’ll still be able to hit your previous assumptions, given that you’ll be able to do something with the proceeds from the business dispositions or do you think there is downside to the initial numbers?
Christa Davies, CFO
Yeah. Jimmy, what we would say is, we’re not providing updated guidance at this time. Once we close, we’ll certainly look forward to updating it. But what we will say is that the $800 million remains regardless of remedies. And we would note that when we originally got the $800 million of guidance on expense savings, that was on an EPS base that was going to grow. It’s pre-pandemic and so the math obviously of $800 million of expenses on a smaller basis is still a very positive outcome. And then the last thing I’d say is, clearly, none of that math assumed any upside in terms of revenue growth and meeting unmet needs of clients, which is really the entire strategic rationale of the transaction. But, Greg, perhaps, do you want to talk about this?
Greg Case, CEO
Jimmy, if you consider where we were a little over a year ago in March 2020 when we announced the combination, we recognized an opportunity worth $800 million, as Christa mentioned, but it was really about the potential benefits for our clients, colleagues, and shareholders. Looking at this opportunity over the next five years, we believe it offers exceptional value creation, stronger than we have witnessed in the past decade. This includes nearly 1,200 basis points improvement in return on invested capital and around 1,600 basis points improvement in free cash flow margin. From a shareholder value perspective, a year ago we were very excited about these prospects. Throughout the year, after engaging with our colleagues at Willis Towers Watson, my confidence in this has only increased. Everything we've discussed externally, as Christa explained effectively, doesn’t even capture our plans for accelerating innovation, which is progressing well as we start integrating. The enthusiasm among our colleagues is building significantly, and we are eagerly anticipating the positive impact on all fronts: clients, colleagues, and shareholders.
Jimmy Bhullar, Analyst
And then maybe one either for Greg or for Eric, can you talk about, it seems like your comments on pricing are a little bit subdued or less upbeat than some of the underwriters. But what you’re seeing in terms of pricing change in Commercial and then Reinsurance as well?
Eric Andersen, President
Sure. Greg, maybe I’ll take that. But before I do, if I can make a comment on your earlier question just on the excitement around the combination of what we’re starting to see at a lower level. Certainly the teams have been working on integration from a client experience and a revenue standpoint, culture innovation, all those things, and we’re really beginning to see the possibilities as we go deeper into the organization around the planning process. Whether it’s things like on the risk side, the cat modeling and securitization experience that Aon has, or Willis’s climate capabilities in their Resilience Hub and their climate expertise. Those types of things, when you put them together, really do provide excitement for our teams to see what’s possible. There’s a lot of those things that we’re identifying as we go through the process and it’s really building some excitement across both organizations, as they see the value they can unlock for clients. So now maybe to get to your question on pricing, I would say this: the dynamic of the pricing, as we say, is moderately positive. But it’s never a straightforward answer, right? I’ll give you some context as to why. We engage with these clients in a couple of steps before you ever get to the marketplace. We do the risk analysis and identification. We work with them on mitigating strategies so that they don’t even transfer the risk. How they can finance it among themselves? Ultimately, if they do decide to transfer to a third-party, they’re coming at this marketplace with their own risk appetite, their own budget capacity, and the options in the market. We’re using our capability to help them make the trade-offs. Ultimately, in each product, there is no marketplace. It’s a series of micro markets. Each product has its own dynamics: own claim trends, terms conditions, retentions, and supply demand. Whether you’re talking property, D&O, or marine, there are a variety of different things. Ultimately, our role in this is to help clients evaluate how to manage the risk and make the right choices that they can make. So as we see it, it’s moderately positive, but ultimately, clients make choices in every market that help them meet their own needs.
Jimmy Bhullar, Analyst
Thanks.
Operator, Operator
Thank you. And our next question comes from Phil Stefano from Deutsche Bank. Your line is now open.
Phil Stefano, Analyst
Yeah. Thanks. Good morning and congrats on the quarter. I guess, just a quick follow-up on the pending acquisition of Willis Towers Watson. So, there was a question earlier about the $1.8 billion revenue marker in the agreement. To me, this is a pretty specific number. Can you give any flavor on how this number came to be that that was the line in the sand which we might need to go back and get approvals?
Greg Case, CEO
Yeah. If we step back, again, the shareholder value question was asked and answered as we did in August. We would come back relatively on the opportunity that we see and how it’s evolved over time. What we really want you to take away is that the opportunity we saw a year ago is stronger now than we saw a year ago. By the way that’s not just the work that Eric described about how the teams have come together and see all the possibilities, that’s also due to the pandemic. One of the outcomes of the pandemic is really an amplification in both awareness across the globe. Literally, across every company in the world, there’s a bigger awareness for things like pandemic, climate, intangible assets, and cyber, more than ever before. It’s also penetrated into the C-suite in ways that it has not before. For us, we see a tremendous opportunity. We saw that opportunity as we brought together the discussion around the combination last March and we see that continuing. From our standpoint, as Christa described at the beginning, we are making our way through the process and making good progress, and we’re very excited about the outcome.
Phil Stefano, Analyst
Okay. Worth a shot. Christa, you had mentioned the expense guidance that you gave, and I appreciate that, it has some potential resumption in T&E for later this year. I was hoping you could just kind of flush out how you’re thinking about, without any specifics, just kind of generally how you’re thinking about that, right? If I want to run a comparison of actual versus expected of the world opening back up and people getting back to whatever normal business activities look like moving forward, how can I compare that to how you are thinking about it?
Christa Davies, CFO
We have a successful 10-year history of increasing our margins by about 90 basis points annually. We anticipate further margin growth for the full year 2021, but we are not providing specific guidance for that. Looking ahead to the remainder of 2021, we should expect some investments in the business and a possible return of travel and entertainment later in the year, all of which contributes to our overall margin expansion for 2021. Greg, you might want to share your thoughts on this from a client perspective, especially regarding how we are approaching travel and entertainment and serving our clients.
Greg Case, CEO
Phil, that’s an excellent question regarding the evolution of our business. We are serious about the idea of new and better, and it has been remarkable. The ten coalitions we have are based in major cities around the world, including Chicago, New York, London, Tokyo, Madrid, and Singapore. These are some of the largest companies globally. We will share insights on how they return to working, traveling, and interacting. We have gained a lot from this experience. When we consider client leadership and engagement, face-to-face interactions remain crucial, but our capacity to create an impact in remote settings where we can enhance our unity is substantial. Bringing colleagues from around the world to clients virtually has proven to be incredibly effective for both acquiring new business and engaging existing clients. Eric led this initiative globally, and it’s essential to understand as you consider travel and entertainment moving forward.
Eric Andersen, President
Yeah. Sure, Greg. And look we’re going to be smart about how we view T&E in the future as business opens up. In-person meetings are ultimately a positive step in the global recovery that we can interact. But we’ve learned a lot, right? As we’ve said it in the past. Using that example, Greg, to go a little bit deeper. Historically, if a client wanted to talk about a situation that was occurring outside their home country, we would try to do a conference call or plan a trip. Now, what we do is we open up a WebEx, and we actually have the leader of the country or leader of the issue in that country on the WebEx and we can solve the issue right away. Certainly, there are efficiency and cost advantages to it, but more importantly, I think, there’s enormous client value to unlock that expertise in an immediate way where they’re not getting an interpretation through someone else. They’re talking right to the source and getting that value in real-time. Ultimately we’re going to use what we’ve learned. We’re going to meet the clients where they want to be met. But I think we’ve learned a lot and we’re going to apply it.
Greg Case, CEO
One important point I want to emphasize is the significance of our work over the past decade. While anyone can easily use WebEx to connect faces, what truly matters is the collaboration of colleagues from different parts of our organization who have existing relationships and can support one another in real-time. This kind of interaction is not something that can be easily replicated; it has taken us ten years to develop. When we have ten people on the screen, it powerfully illustrates our unity as a firm. Clients have noticed this and expressed their surprise at its impact. The only way they could have experienced this before, as Eric pointed out, is if we gathered ten people in a conference room, which isn’t feasible. Instead, we provide a dynamic experience on WebEx where team members engage directly with clients to address their concerns. This is quite impressive. The example I mentioned earlier regarding vaccine protection demonstrates this group synergy that might not have happened as effectively in the past. As T&E returns, we are still refining how we approach our business, but it encompasses a much broader perspective.
Phil Stefano, Analyst
Thanks for the information. I'll ask one more question. When I examine what I would consider the underlying expenses, specifically the revenue minus adjusted operating income in the first quarter, is there anything unusual in the growth rate or anything significant to note that would suggest the growth rate we observed in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the first quarter of 2020 is not a reliable indicator?
Christa Davies, CFO
So, if you’re talking about expenses, Phil, what I’ve noticed in expenses is in 2021 you have a lot less G&A and you have a lot less investment in the business compared to Q1 2020. So the margin expansion is much more pronounced in Q1 than you might get in the full year. We do expect full-year margin expansion. There was an increase in comp and benefits due to FX but also due to investment in the business. Those are probably the two unusual things I’d sort of note in Q1.
Phil Stefano, Analyst
Great. All right. I appreciate it. Thank you.
Operator, Operator
Thank you. And our next question comes from David Motemaden from Evercore ISI. Your line is now open.
David Motemaden, Analyst
Hi. Thanks. Good morning. I wanted to just talk about the strong level of organic growth this quarter. So, I guess, I was just wondering, is there anything one-off in this result this quarter? And just as I think about the rest of the years, is there any reason why we shouldn’t expect an acceleration of organic growth from these levels?
Greg Case, CEO
Our perspective is that we started the year with strong momentum. The first quarter performed well in all areas, with some exceptional highlights. As macroeconomic conditions change, we anticipate mid single-digit growth or more for the year. The first quarter has certainly boosted our confidence in this outlook, assuming those macroeconomic factors.
David Motemaden, Analyst
Got it. And nothing one-off in that result that would lead you to think that…
Greg Case, CEO
No.
David Motemaden, Analyst
… we should come down off sets. Okay. That’s helpful.
Greg Case, CEO
Yeah. It was really across the board in terms of all the different aspects: Commercial Risk, Reinsurance, Retirement, and Health across the board with great work by the teams around the world on new business growth and growth in project related work, which came back a bit, particularly in some of the search lines.
David Motemaden, Analyst
Got it. Thanks. And then maybe just on the combination with Willis, Christa, I think, you had said something to the effect that you would expect to achieve the $800 million of cost synergies at any level of concessions. But I guess I just wanted to sort of dig into that—is there a level that would make that tough to achieve, and just sort of maybe just sort of peel back the onion a little bit on just what gave you confidence that you can get to that $800 million of savings?
Christa Davies, CFO
Yeah. So, David, we continue to anticipate $800 million of cost synergies considering the remedies we’ve offered. We’d expect to allocate any divestiture proceeds according to our ROIC framework in which share buyback continues to be our highest expected return activity. I would note that the $800 million of cost synergies, we’re very confident in achieving. It’s 5.5% of the combined cost base. We have achieved 11% of the combined cost base today on U.S. and 18% of the combined cost base today on Benfold and there’s no structural differences here. We feel really good about achieving that $800 million.
David Motemaden, Analyst
Got it. Helpful. That’s clear. And then maybe if I could just sneak one more in, just on the margin, you guys obviously, I appreciate the slide you guys put in the deck. You guys have expanded margins by 90 basis points a year over the last decade. You did 170 basis points in the first quarter. Obviously, you need comps there, and I know that you guide for the full year? But I guess is there any reason to expect that margins shouldn’t expand here over the next three quarters?
Christa Davies, CFO
So, first of all, David, we absolutely expect full year margin expansion for the year 2021 and we think about margin expansion in the context of a full year because our expenses will be lumpy quarter-to-quarter as we sort of talked about with the re-patenting of expenses. What we would say is, Q1 was unusual in terms of margin expansion, because we had a pre-pandemic comparable in Q1 2020. I think about margin expansion over the course of the full year 2021, as you said we had a 10-year track record of 890 basis points of margin expansion over the last 10 years, so 90 basis points a year. We’re on track to do full-year margin expansion again in 2021.
David Motemaden, Analyst
Thank you.
Operator, Operator
Thank you. And our final question comes from Meyer Shields from KBW. Your line is now open.
Meyer Shields, Analyst
Thanks. I guess beginning with a basic question, you talked a little bit about the blockchain for a premium clearinghouse. How should we expect to see that in the financial, I don’t mean numbers, but where does that make a difference?
Christa Davies, CFO
Yeah. I mean it really makes a difference in terms of margin expansion. It’s driving improved quality and therefore reduced errors. It’s driving efficiency because it’s allowing colleagues to spend more time on high value activities with their client. So it’s both reduced errors and improved efficiency. Ultimately, we’re utilizing client experience, but the simple answer is operating margin expansions.
Meyer Shields, Analyst
Okay. No. That’s perfect. That’s exactly what I was looking for. Same question, you never, I think, disclosed a number of expected revenue synergies from the innovation. I know that the $800 million savings guidance is still there. Is the internal number for revenues still the same?
Greg Case, CEO
Well, as we said before, we didn’t disclose, Meyer, as you described, but the entire region we are bringing the combination together really goes back to the idea that we’ve accelerated innovation on behalf of clients, continue to do what we’re doing but just keep getting better on their behalf. Meyer, it’s not hard to find the categories where we can continue to improve and support. Look at issues like the pandemic, obviously, but we are finding ways to bring new solutions that really matter for clients and climate. If we think about taking actions to go zero carbon, how do we help them reduce volatility in the way that? We had a set of use back in March 2020 on that. Eric, I think, described it very well, as we spent time with our colleagues at Willis Towers Watson. We see more potential and possibilities than ever, and the pandemic happened. Clients are actually more attuned to this. They’re asking, what am I going to do about this? I’m not going to play it out. Things like intangible assets. We’ve made great progress on tangible assets and how you think about defending the house on intangible assets. Now, with Willis Towers Watson, the opportunity we believe is even greater in areas like cyber, etc. We were excited in 2020 around the possibilities on what we can do to drive innovation, which is in fact net new opportunity for clients and for our colleagues, but also revenue, and we see that opportunity greater now than we saw a year ago.
Operator, Operator
Thank you. I would now like to turn the call back over to Greg Case for closing remarks.
Greg Case, CEO
Thank you, Operator. I just wanted to say to everyone thank you very much for joining this quarter. We appreciate it and very much look forward to our discussion next quarter. Thanks so much.
Operator, Operator
Thank you for your participation in today’s conference. All participants may disconnect at this time.