Long-term savings and fund management
Operating profit
Our worldwide long-term savings and fund management business reported an operating profit of £1,865 million (2004: £1,631 million), an increase of 13%, reflecting strong sales growth, particularly in our continental European business and bancassurance channel.
 Present value of new business premiums (PVNBP)* |
 Growth in PVNBP* |
 Bancassurance partnerships worldwide |
 Awards in fund management |
A balanced portfolio in mature markets
Our businesses in the mature markets of the UK, France and the Netherlands benefit from balanced product offerings and distribution channels. This benefit has been demonstrated by our robust performance in 2005.
Increasing our presence in high-growth markets
We now have 18 bancassurance partnerships in India and have extended our agreement with American Express for 10 years and have partnerships with ABN AMRO, Canara Bank and Centurion Bank of Punjab. In China, Aviva-COFCO is now licensed in four cities and has sales offices in five further cities.
| Operating return £m | Worldwide new business sales ‡ £bn | |
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Forming partnerships
We recently announced a bancassurance joint venture in Ireland with AIB that will create a leading force in the Irish life and pensions market. Sales through our joint venture with Crédit du Nord in France, which commenced in October 2004, were £728 million in 2005. We extended our deal with Banche Popolari Unite in Italy to distribute through an additional 380 branches.
Recognition for our fund management businesses
We launched new institutional and retail funds during the year, particularly in property-related investments where Morley was named property manager of the year at the UK Pensions Awards 2005. Our French business won a number of awards, including being named best insurer in the 2005 Le Revenu fund management awards.
| * | The present value of new premiums (PVNBP) is equal to total single premium sales received in the year plus the discounted value of annual premiums expected to be received over the term of new contracts, and is expressed at the point of sale. |
| ** | On an achieved profits basis. |
| † | On a European Embedded Value (EEV) basis. |
| Single premiums, regular premiums and investment sales. |
We continue to explore new opportunities to expand our business in less developed markets.
With businesses already established in several Eastern European states, we have opened a representative office in Moscow to evaluate the potential that might exist for us in the Russian long-term savings market. In India, since launching in 2002, we have expanded rapidly to become the leader in the bancassurance market, ranking seventh amongst private insurers.
We have won approval to sell life insurance products in a total of 9 Chinese cities. Aviva-COFCO is the first international insurer to open an office in some of these cities. China is an important long-term market for Aviva, and we are pleased to be able to continue our expansion.
