Marsh & McLennan Companies plans to cut its global workforce by as much as 5 per cent after it completes the planned $5.7 billion acquisition of Jardine Lloyd Thompson.

The news came in a filing by MMC with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The two companies, both of which have operations in Bermuda, announced agreement on the takeover deal on Tuesday. It is expected to close in the spring of 2019.

MMC says there will be “duplication” of functions between the merging businesses and that it plans to achieve annual cost savings of about $250 million.

Given that the two firms have a combined global workforce of around 75,000, as many as 3,750 jobs could be at risk.

In Bermuda, both companies offer captive management services and act as re/insurance brokers and risk advisers. MMC’s business is based in the Power House on Par-la-Ville Road and JLT’s base is in Cedar House, on Cedar Avenue.

In the SEC filing, MMC said that it had not finalised its plans for staffing yet.

“MMC’s preliminary evaluation suggests that MMC is expected to achieve synergies of approximately $250 million within three years of completion of the acquisition, a substantial portion of which could come from headcount reductions in addition to savings in real estate, IT, outside services and other initiatives,” the filing states.

“Based on this preliminary evaluation, MMC expects a potential headcount reduction of between 2 and 5 per cent of the total combined group workforce across all geographies, including in the UK, Continental Europe, Asia, North America, the Middle East, Latin America and the Pacific, and from a broad range of job categories, including functional support areas such as finance, human resources, IT, operations, legal and administrative support staff.”

MMC has about 85 office locations around the world and JLT has 40. MMC intends to “to consolidate offices where feasible in order to significantly reduce rental and lease expenses and to enable colleagues to work more closely together”.