Brown & Brown Q1 net income up 12.9% on legal settlement

US re/insurance broker Brown & Brown reported a 12.9 percent increase in net income for the first quarter of 2017, boosted by a legal settlement with AssuredPartners.

Net income grew $8.0 million year-on-year to $70.1 million in the first quarter of 2017.

Revenues were up 9.6 percent year-on-year at $465.1 million. Commissions and fees increased to $444.6 million in the first quarter from $422.4 million a year ago.

"We are pleased with the performance of our four divisions,” said J. Powell Brown, president and CEO of the company. “As a Company we continued to deliver improved organic growth and furthered the investment in our businesses to position us for future growth and increased profitability."

The first quarter results include a beneficial impact of $20.0 million from a legal settlement with AssuredPartners. Excluding the effect of the legal settlement and other one-offs such as the impact of adopting FASB Accounting Standards Update 2016-09, diluted earnings per share would have decreased by 4.4 percent year-on-year to $0.43 instead of soaring by 11.4 percent to $0.49.

Brown & Brown settled a lawsuit against a number of its former employees, their current employer AssuredPartners and several key executives within the rival firm in March.

AssuredPartners agreed to pay $20 million to Brown & Brown to settle the case as well as agreeing to stop soliciting Brown & Brown employees.

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