Marsh & McLennan has produced a solid December quarter to finish the year strongly, lifted in part by its $US5.6 billion ($8.4 billion) acquisition of rival broker JLT last April.

Net income for the December quarter increased to $US391 million ($583.4 million) from $US153 million ($228.3 million), taking full-year earnings to $US1.74 billion ($2.6 billion) from $US1.65 billion ($2.5 billion).

The net earnings figures included JLT results from April to December.

“[Last year] was a historic year for Marsh & McLennan,” CEO and President Dan Glaser said.

“We closed the largest transaction in our company’s history, maintained our momentum through the integration and met our key milestones. With a solid fourth quarter, we enter 2020 well positioned for continued growth.”

The risk and insurance services arm, comprising of Marsh and Guy Carpenter, achieved a 16% rise in revenue to $US9.49 billion ($14.2 billion) last year. If JLT results were included, then revenues increased 2%.

Marsh grew its full-year revenues by 17% to $US8.01 billion ($11.9 billion) or 2% if JLT was treated as if it was part of the business.

For Guy Carpenter, revenues increased 15% to $US1.48 billion (2.2 billion). If JLT results from a year earlier were included, the rise is about 3%.