Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. (NYSE:MMC) Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call January 25, 2024 8:30 AM ET
Company Participants
John Doyle - President & CEO
Mark McGivney - CFO
Martin South - President & CEO, Marsh
Dean Klisura - President & CEO, Guy Carpenter
Nick Studer - President & CEO, Oliver Wyman Group
Martine Ferland - President & CEO, Mercer
Sarah DeWitt - Head of IR
Conference Call Participants
Elyse Greenspan - Wells Fargo
Jimmy Bhullar - J.P. Morgan
Michael Zaremski - BMO Capital Markets
David Motemaden - Evercore ISI
Robert Cox - Goldman Sachs
Meyer Shields - KBW
Brian Meredith - UBS
Andrew Kligerman - TD Cowen
Bob Huang - Morgan Stanley
Michael Ward - Citigroup
Operator
Welcome to Marsh McLennan's earnings conference call. Today's call is being recorded. Fourth Quarter 2023 financial results and supplemental information were issued earlier this morning. They are available on the company's website at Marshmclennan.com.
Please note that remarks made today may include forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and a variety of factors may cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by such statements. For a more detailed discussion of those factors, please refer to our earnings release for this quarter and to our most recent SEC filings, including our most recent Form 10-K, all of which are available on the Marsh McLennan website. During the call today, we may also discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. For a reconciliation of these measures to the most closely comparable GAAP measures, please refer to the schedule in today's earnings release. [Operator Instructions].
I'll now turn this over to John Doyle, President and CEO of Marsh McLennan.
John Doyle
Good morning, and thank you for joining us to discuss our fourth quarter results reported earlier today. I'm John Doyle, President and CEO of Marsh McLennan. Joining me on the call today is Mark McGivney, our CFO, and the CEOs of our businesses, Martin South of Marsh, Dean Klisura of Guy Carpenter, Martine Ferland of Mercer, and Nick Studer of Oliver Wyman. Also with us this morning is Sarah DeWitt, head of Investor Relations.
2023 was an outstanding year for Marsh McLennan. Total revenue grew 10% to $22.7 billion. We generated 9% underlying revenue growth, continuing our best period of growth in more than two decades, with each of our businesses delivering strong results. Adjusted operating income grew 17% to $5.6 billion. This on top of 11% growth in 2022. Our adjusted operating margin increased 130 basis points, marking the 16th consecutive year we've reported margin expansion, and adjusted EPS grew 17%. We invested $1.6 billion in acquisitions that added to our talent, capabilities, and scale. This was our largest year for acquisitions in nearly two decades, aside from 2019 when we acquired JLT. Our acquisition of Graham expanded MMA’s mid-Atlantic presence, Honan’s strength in our Australian middle market business, and our transaction with Westpac created one of Australia's most competitive super funds. At the same time, we continued to optimize our portfolio, with the sale of two administration businesses at Mercer, which closed on January 1, 2024, and we delivered significant capital return to shareholders, raising our dividend by 20%, and completing $1.15 billion of share repurchases. I'm proud of what our team achieved in 2023. Our colleagues executed on key initiatives and generated value for clients and shareholders.