Aviva Posts 15% Rise in 9-mth General Insurance Premiums

LONDON (Reuters) -British insurer Aviva posted a 15% rise in general insurance gross written premiums for the first nine months of the year to 9.1 billion pounds ($11.54 billion) on Thursday and said it was confident of meeting its group targets.

The life, motor and home insurer, whose main businesses are in Britain, Canada and Ireland, also reported a 67% rise in retirement sales to 7.3 billion pounds, helped by strong performance in insurance for company defined benefit pension schemes known as bulk annuities.

Insurers have made healthy profits in recent years, responding to higher inflation and losses from COVID-19 and natural catastrophes by raising premiums.

“Aviva is financially strong, trading well each quarter and has significant opportunities for further growth,” Chief Executive Amanda Blanc said in a statement.

Aviva outlined group targets earlier this year, including 2 billion pounds in operating profit by 2026. Its 2023 profit was 1.47 billion pounds.

Aviva had a combined operating ratio in the first nine months of 96.8%, compared with 96.3% a year earlier. Combined operating ratio is a measure of underwriting profitability in which a level below 100% indicates a profit.

Aviva said its bulk annuity volumes were 6.1 billion pounds in the first nine months, compared with 3.2 billion a year ago. Aviva wrote 7.8 billion pounds in bulk deals by Thursday and said it did not expect volumes to increase materially for the rest of the year.

The UK bulk annuity market saw a record 50 billion pounds in deals last year, and industry sources expect a similar volume this year.

KBW analysts described the trading update as “reassuring”, reiterating their “market perform” rating on the stock.

($1 = 0.7886 pounds)

(Reporting by Carolyn Cohn, editing by Sinead Cruise)