b'Mergers & Acquisitions | Property-Casualty SectorUK and EuropeJust as the world was getting thrown into turmoil at the emergence of the COVID-19 pan-demic, a blockbuster deal was announced in early March 2020 on the broker consolidation trend with Aons all share offer to acquire its fellow London listed rival Willis in a $30 billion tie-up. On closing, which is still scheduled to occur during the first half of 2021, the combined group will leap-frog Marsh & McLennan Companies to become the worlds largest commer-cial insurance broker, headquartered in London. Market commentators will be watching the regulatory and antitrust processes (as mentioned in the Property-Casualty SectorNorth America and Bermuda article) and outcomes closely to see potential disposal conditions being imposed and whether or not any are contested, which may push out the closing timeline. Meanwhile, as senior key positions in the proposed final combined group settle down, there could be opportunities for spinoff transactions and team moves, which are typical byproducts of such major transactions, and some of the start-up and second-tier players will also circle key business generators in both businesses.One related disposal which was initially earmarked prior to the announcement of the Aon-Willis tie up was the sale by Willis of London-based wholesale specialist broker Miller Insurance Services (Miller). It took until the tail end of 2020 for a deal to be struck which sees private equity house Cinven partner with Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC to buy Miller in a deal said to value Miller at approximately $700 million. Once again, this deal demonstrates the continued attractiveness of (re)insurance broking assets to the private equity community on which we have commented in previous editions of this publication, and which sees no sign of slowing down as more and more private equity houses join the sea-soned players in this sector of the market.2020 also saw a series of private equity-led transactions and secondary deals such as The Carlyle Groups sale of PIB Group to Apax Partners and HGs investment into Howden parent, Hyperion Insurance Group Limited, following Howdens major acquisition of UK-based SME broker A-Plan. One of the fastest-growing broker consolidators, The Ardonagh Group, also received additional firepower for more acquisitions with an injection of new capital from Madison Dearborn Partners and Highbridge Capital Management. The broker sector is a dynamic play for such investors, and generally speaking, the attractive multiples secured by sellers underlie the stability of target revenues in a challenging global macroeconomic environment largely created by the pandemic and the worldwide restric-tions that continue to flow from it.On the carrier side of things, as has always been the case even before the COVID-19 outbreak, investments tend to take longer to consummate for financial buyers; it remains the case that 10GLOBAL INSURANCE INDUSTRY | YEAR IN REVIEW2020'