Towers should reject $8.7 billion deal with Willis, advisers say

Towers Watson disagrees with the advisers because they focus on short-term trading and discount the "significant" long-term value creation potential of the merger, the company said on Friday. London-based Willis said in a statement that the recommendation "neglects the estimated $4.7 billion in incremental value for shareholders that we expect through clearly identified cost, tax and revenue synergies."

Willis dropped 68 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $44.60 at 9:39 a.m. in New York trading. Towers Watson slipped 0.1 percent to $129.02, compared with the closing price of $137.98 the day before the deal was announced.

Towers Watson stakeholders including Driehaus Capital Management LLC, which owns more than 1 million shares, have said they're planning to vote against the proposed deal, and that the consulting company's quarterly results, announced Monday, highlight its prospects as an independent firm.

"They came out with fantastic earnings that handily exceeded market expectations," Matthew Schoenfeld, an assistant portfolio manager at Driehaus, said in a phone interview Friday. "It's not in the best interest of shareholders to sell at a 9 percent discount to market value for a company that is exceeding expectations and that is doing quite well."

—With assistance from Colin Keatinge in Tokyo