Dame Amanda Blanc

Today we’re announcing three key things.

First, that we have delivered another strong set of results in Q3, growing across the group. From General Insurance in the UK, Canada and Ireland…right through to our leading Wealth business.

This means we’re on track to meet our current 2026 Group financial targets at the end of 2025, a full year ahead of schedule.

We are set to exceed £2bn of operating profit and £1.8bn of own funds generation this year.

And, to be clear, these targets will be achieved before any contribution from Direct Line - a huge testament to the strength of the underlying Aviva business. I am incredibly proud of the team for such a fantastic achievement.

Second, the integration of Direct Line is already well underway, reinforcing our belief in the full potential of this deal.

So, we’re raising our expectations on the benefits that we will realise, increasing cost synergies to £225m - and confirming significant capital benefits of at least £500m.

The acquisition also accelerates our capital-light earnings strategy and we’re set to surpass 75% by the end of 2028. This is highly attractive for our shareholders – because it means that we are delivering stronger growth and better returns, using less capital.

And finally, but perhaps most importantly, we are raising our ambitions yet again with new three-year targets:

• We have a new operating EPS target of 11% through 2028.

• We are aiming to deliver a return on equity of greater than 20% by 2028.

• And we’re refreshing cash remittances, now with bigger ambitions of over £7bn.

So, to sum up:

Over the past five years, we have transformed Aviva and we are in a stronger position than ever today.

We are the UK’s leading diversified insurer, delivering a clear strategy and consistently strong performance for our customers and shareholders.

We’ve achieved a huge amount but as we enter this new chapter, we know there’s still much more to come from Aviva.

Guy Johnson

Joining us now is Amanda Blanc. She is the CEO of Aviva. Its numbers have just come out onto the screen. First half IFRS profit after tax, 819, well ahead of the estimate of 634. The combined ratio, big number for the insurance sector, 94.6 versus 95.4 year-on-year. Operating profit, 1.07. Again, ahead of expectations. Nice numbers. Good morning.

Amanda Blanc

They are. Good morning.

Guy Johnson

You're confident about meeting your targets?

Amanda Blanc

Yes. Very confident about meeting target.

Guy Johnson

So where does that confidence come from? These numbers seem to suggest the momentum is good.

Amanda Blanc

Yeah. Momentum's excellent. Outstanding results. 22% up on operating profit. We've seen the dividend increase by 10% to 13.1P. Obviously, we've just completed the acquisition of Direct Line, but there's really strong trading performance in the business. Operating profit in the general insurance business is up 30%. And we've seen flows onto our wealth platform. Our wealth platform is the biggest platform in the UK. 209 billion flows up 16%. So really strong trading performances. We're very pleased about it.

Guy Johnson

Confidence of meeting group tar ... Are those targets going to change? Now you've got the keys to Direct

Line. Are we going to get an update anytime soon in terms of what new numbers are going to look like?

Amanda Blanc

Yeah, of course. So actually, we only set the targets last year, but with a Direct Line acquisition, we do need to come back to the targets. In November, we're going to do a sort of mini deep dive on Direct Line, what we found, what we're going to do, how we're going to achieve all the benefits that we've committed to, and we'll talk about that then.

Guy Johnson
Okay.

Kriti Gupta

Let's talk about another leg of your business, if you can, in terms of the growth story. You already have plenty of wealth offerings over at Aviva as well. There's been a big push on both sides of the Atlantic to really tackle the retail base as to get that kind of next leg of growth. How is Aviva thinking about targeting that audience?

Amanda Blanc

So the way that we think about that, we've got a very big workplace business, so the defined contribution pension business. We are the biggest player in the UK. We've got 4.9 million members of those workplace schemes. One of the biggest opportunities is looking at that area where we know that in the UK, there are 12 and a half million people who will not have enough money to save for retirement. So it's really how do we use Aviva's wider offerings to those workplace pension customers to offer them other savings products so that they can be better prepared for their retirement. So there's huge opportunity for us there. And I think that's what you're seeing with the results coming through today, that we're just really at the foothills of that. So much more potential to go.

Kriti Gupta

Well, Amanda, it's interesting that you mentioned the pension fund story. We had the LSEG CEO, David Schwimmer, around the table a couple of days ago. And he was talking about the idea of tax incentives for pension funds ultimately being conditional on greater investments in the UK. How are you viewing that? Would you agree that's the way to go?

Amanda Blanc

So look, from our perspective, we are big investors in the UK. We invest £40 billion in the UK, 30 billion of which is in real assets, in infrastructure. So it's important for us, for the UK to do well. We believe that through things like Solvency UK, we get good capital treatment on that. Probably, we could continue to do better there. But we are committed to investing over 25 billion over the next 10 years in the UK. I think as pension funds, we've obviously thinking about the long term. So for us, it's a great investment opportunity.

Valerie Tytel

And Amanda, can we have a few words on what you think about the rising competition when it comes to the pension risk transfer business? We know that the likes of Apollo and Brookfield have recently done deals to get into that kind of space. What do you make of these new entries? And do you think that in some way, this tougher competition could impact your business?

Amanda Blanc

So it won't impact our business. And the reason why is that we have spent the last three years ... We're a very diversified business, so we can take you from your very first junior ISA to your equity release mortgage and everything else in between. But purchase annuities is just one part of our business. And we've moved our earnings from 47% capital-light three years ago to 66% as we sit here today. That's going to get to over 70%. So we're unlike some of the other players in the UK. We're not reliant on the bulk purchase market. It's just one of other strings to our bow. So yes, of course, that is going to bring competition. There's no doubt about that. But we feel very confident that a diversified business gives us plenty of other opportunities to go after.

Valerie Tytel

Right. So the positives in the diversified business lines that you have. I've also read that it's your fifth

anniversary at Aviva. Would you consider your job done? What's left to tackle?

Amanda Blanc

Oh, no, my job's not done at all. Five years. There has been a profound transformation in Aviva in the last five years. It really is a business now that has got huge momentum. And with the Direct Line acquisition just completed, the job's just beginning, really. We've got so much opportunity to go after.

Guy Johnson

Just a couple of ... You said a few interesting things. Capital-light. Do you think that demands a higher multiple? Do you think the stock should trade on a higher multiple as a result of a more capital-light model?

Amanda Blanc

Well, that is definitely the theory because obviously you're using less capital, and so you're able to return

more capital to shareholders, provided ....

Guy Johnson

Do you think that's being recognised by the market yet?

Amanda Blanc

Well, I think if you look at our share price performance, I like to remember that when I walked in through the door, the share price was £2.73. As I looked at it, I don't know what it'll be this morning, but yesterday it was £6.58, I think, when we closed. So I think there's been ... The share price has performed really, really well, but we still believe that there is plenty of opportunity to go after.

Guy Johnson

Alright, Okay. You also ... Kriti asked you about retail. Can I just come back on that? Would you consider acquisitions? Would you consider a way of bulking out that wealth side of the business to include a bigger retail offering?

Amanda Blanc

So we already have a direct wealth offering, which we relaunched last year. And we've got 90,000 additional customers in the first half of this year. So we're making really strong progress on that. I think in terms of M&A, we've literally just done the Direct Line deal. That's the focus of our attention.

Guy Johnson

Haven't got a taste for it. You don't feel like another one?

Amanda Blanc

I think we need to digest this one first.

Guy Johnson

Okay.

Kriti Gupta

All right. Amanda Blanc. Amanda Blanc, CEO of Aviva, joining us around the table this morning for your

earnings picture. We thank you so much for your time.

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