LONDON (BestWeek) — While Aon plc chief executive officer Greg Case is admittedly “not excited” about a revenue drop in the reinsurance brokerage arm, there is a positive outlook on the horizon with a stronger fourth-quarter capital markets pipeline and continued investment in that segment of the business.

Looking at the totality of its reinsurance division, Case said the company has “by far, the largest book in the world”, and its treaty reinsurance business is the most exposed to market pressures in the United States, Japan and other places. He noted reinsurance brokerage revenues are down two percent for the first nine months of the year to $1.1 billion. Third-quarter reinsurance revenues were down five percent to $371 million.

“Against that backdrop through the first nine months we were minus two percent,” Case said in a conference call. “We’re not excited about that, but when you think about that, that’s a reasonable outcome given where we are. We continue to make substantial investments to build the business in data and analytics ... we’re going to see that benefit coming through. We’ve had record new business across risk overall.”

Aon saw its net income rise 19 percent to $315 million, with revenues rising three percent to $2.9 billion. Third-quarter revenues for its risk solutions segment were up one percent to $1.8 billion, and its HR solutions segment revenues were up eight percent to $1.06 billion.

“Overall, results in the third quarter were challenged by unfavorable impacts from revenue timing, foreign currency translation, reinsurance market impact and certain one-time transaction costs, which offset solid underlying operational progress,” said Aon chief financial officer Christa Davies.

The company sees a stronger pipeline of capital markets business coming in the fourth quarter, Case said. A company presentation cited a decline of capital markets transaction in the third quarter as a contributing challenge to the reinsurance operations. Indeed, only one standard-market catastrophe bond closed in the third quarter during the traditional summer lull.

Aon’s major competitors in the reinsurance brokering sector have already reported earnings. The reinsurance brokerage arm for Marsh and McLennan Cos, Guy Carpenter, reported third-quarter revenues up two percent to $266 million, while Willis Group Holding’s reinsurance unit, Willis Re, grew by low-single-digits without providing specific figures.

However, Aon doesn’t see any market share shift in the reinsurance brokerage sector, Case said. Aon’s reinsurance net new business has been positive for 14 consecutive quarters, and are near the top of its highest new business results for the quarter, he said. The company is building out capabilities and investing more than $120 million a year in data and analytics in the reinsurance business alone, he said.

“There’s no excuse,” Case said. “We need to grow and we anticipate growing over time in this business.”

Ranked by total revenues, Aon was the second-largest broker in the world in 2013 with revenues of $11.8 billion, according to Best’s Review.