The company, which conducts audit and forensic investigations to uncover fraud and helps to locate misappropriated assets, is being valued at between $1.2 and $1.5 billion, Infosecurity understands.
The Financial Times confirmed that a private equity bid has been received for Kroll, although Marsh & McLennan has not confirmed the figures or parties involved.
The Bloomberg newswire says that bids have come in from three equity specialists – Apax Partners, the Carlyle Group and General Atlantic – although nothing has been confirmed from the companies concerned.
The Financial Times, meanwhile, quotes Brian Duperreault, Marsh & McLennan's chief executive, as telling reporters in May 2008 that the company may sell off Kroll, after after a $425m writedown on the value of the corporate security group pushed Kroll into a first-quarter loss.
The FT notes that the original founder of Kroll recently launched a new boutique investigations firm called K2.
According to the FT: "The purchase of Kroll was the brainchild of Jeffrey Greenberg, who resigned in 2004 amid accusations that Marsh had falsified and rigged bids on contracts and favoured insurers at the expense of clients in return for higher commissions. Marsh settled the allegations, but neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing."