Aviva plc First Quarter 2008
Andrew Moss, group chief executive, said:
“These results highlight the value of our expansion in the US, which set another quarterly sales record, and in Asia Pacific, where we’ve recently opened new businesses in Taiwan and Malaysia. We’ve also seen strong growth in central and eastern Europe and although some continental European markets are facing a more challenging year, our geographical spread, combined with the breadth of our product portfolio and distribution means that we are confident of achieving our medium-term European growth target.
“Our UK life business performed in line with our expectations of the life and pensions market, and we maintained both a market leading position and steady margins. We expect that UK market growth will be constrained this year, but believe that our new products and breadth of distribution will continue to position us well.
“The UK general insurance market continues to be competitive and we remained focused on profitability, and on reducing complexity in our products and processes.
“Overall, we are making good progress towards the group’s medium-term performance targets and the cost savings that we announced last year. While we expect some further short-term uncertainty in some of our markets, the strength of our balance sheet and the prudent management actions we took last year will help us ride out economic turbulence. Aviva’s diversification across geographies, distribution channels and products will continue to prove a great strength in current market conditions.”
• Resilient long-term savings sales in tough economic conditions
- worldwide sales up 2% to £9,402 million
- life and pensions sales up 5% to £8,168 million
- group margin maintained
• Benefit of geographical diversity and balanced distribution
- UK Life: consistent performance, balancing volumes and profitability in a subdued market
- Europe: resilient performance, benefiting from positive effect of strengthening Euro
- North America: attractive product design sustains strong growth
- Asia Pacific: excellent performances in India and China
• General insurance: reaffirmed commitment to ‘meet or beat’ 98% group combined operating ratio
Enquiries:
Analysts/Investors:
| Andrew Moss, group chief executive, Aviva | +44 (0)20 7662 2286 |
| Philip Scott, group finance director, Aviva | +44 (0)20 7662 2264 |
| Charles Barrows, investor relations director, Aviva | +44 (0)20 7662 8115 |
| Jessie Burrows, head of investor relations, Aviva | +44 (0)20 7662 2111 |
Media:
| Sue Winston, head of group media relations | +44 (0)20 7662 8221 |
| Vanessa Rhodes, senior group media relations manager | +44 (0)20 7662 2482 |
| James Murgatroyd/Ed Simpkins, Finsbury | +44 (0)20 7251 3801 |
There will be a conference call today for wire services at 08:45am (BST) on +44 (0)20 7162 0025 (quoting “Aviva, Andrew Moss”). This conference call will be hosted by Andrew Moss, group chief executive with Philip Scott, group finance director in attendance.
There will be a conference call today for analysts and investors at 09:45am (BST) on +44 (0)20 7162 0125 (quoting “Aviva, Andrew Moss”). This conference call will be hosted by Andrew Moss, group chief executive with Philip Scott, group finance director in attendance.
Replay will be available until 12 May 2008. The dial in number for replays is +44 (0)20 7031 4064 and the pass code is 792582.
Photographs are available on the Aviva media centre.