Marsh Global Broking yesterday laid off six staff.

The layoffs come in the wake of the Marsh & McLennan's purchase last year of Sedgwick Plc. Marsh also bought Johnson & Higgins in 1997.

The most prominent head to roll in the local office is that of Bermudian Sheila Nicoll, who was vice president of broking and dealt mainly with aviation and satellite coverage.

Ms Nicoll could not be reached yesterday. Apparently Ms Nicoll lost out in a power struggle when local operations were merged with Johnson & Higgins and Sedgwick.

Her cause was also not helped by ACE transferring much of its satellite coverage business to the US.

Sources say Bermuda is not getting as much of its traditional insurance business as it used to as companies such as ACE and XL Capital Ltd. build up their operations in the US.

Joseph Peiser, who heads Marsh's brokerage operations on the Island, confirmed the "modest'' layoffs but didn't reveal the names. He said the company was downsizing by not filling other vacancies and by transferring personel to other Marsh offices off the Island.

"This is a result of efficiencies Marsh has said it would be looking to achieve through a combination with Sedgwick,'' he said.

He said reports that the company was going from 55 to 43 people by the end of the year were "not accurate but reasonably close'' and that the actual reduction was less.

"We don't give out figures for competitive reasons,'' he said.

"Marsh remains confident in the Bermuda market -- both the traditional and in particular the alternative risk market. We see this as a one-time adjustment of staff. We don't see any additional reductions in the near or immediate future.'' Casualty: Sheila Nicoll