Aviva plc, the international savings, investments and insurance group, today announces the opening of an office in Hubei, a central province in China.
Aviva plc, the international savings, investments and insurance group, today announces the opening of an office in Hubei, a central province in China.
This signals the final phase of Aviva's "10x10x10" China strategy, which is to establish branches in 10 target provinces and achieve an average ten percent total market share in new business premiums by 2010.
Aviva Asia Pacific opened its first office in China in 2003 and now operates in 10 provinces, with a total of forty city branches in Guangdong, Beijing, Sichuan, Fujian, Shandong, Hunan, Hebei, Jiangsu, Liaoning and now, Hubei.
Despite challenging global economic conditions, China remains a highly attractive growth market with a large population, high domestic savings rate and increasing middle class. This has resulted in significant recent growth in the Chinese life insurance market, which has grown by an average of 26% per annum between 2000 and 2007, and by 48% in 2008*.
In 2008, Aviva-Cofco's cumulative premium income reached the 3.85 billion RMB mark, making it the second largest foreign life insurance company in China and taking it to 13th among all life insurance companies in the country.
Hubei, a key industrial construction region, is the 10th largest province in terms of GDP in China and currently has low levels of insurance penetration.
Commenting on the office opening, Simon Machell, chief executive Aviva Asia Pacific, said: "This is an exciting growth opportunity and underlines our deep commitment to China and the Chinese market. Developing broad market penetration is a strategy that is yielding impressive new business growth. It also takes us closer to our target of achieving ten percent average market share in ten provinces by 2010."
*Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC)
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Notes to editors:
- Aviva is the world's fifth largest* insurance group, serving 50 million customers across Europe, North America and Asia Pacific.
- Aviva's main business activities are long-term savings, fund management and general insurance, with worldwide total sales of £51.4 billion and funds under management of £381 billion at 31 December 2008.
- Aviva Asia Pacific, operates in Australia, China, India, Korea, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and the Middle East
- In China, Aviva-Cofco is now the second largest, in terms of total premium income, of the foreign insurance companies in this market with a presence in 10 provinces and 40 city branches.
- The Aviva media centre at www.aviva.com/media includes images, company and product information and a news release archive.
* based on gross worldwide premiums at 31 December 2007
About Hubei Province
- Hubei province is situated in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and to the north of Dongting Lake.
- It is surrounded by Henan Province to the north, Jiangxi and Hunan to the south, Anhui to the east, Sichuan to the west and Shaanxi to the northwest.
- Hubei covers an area of 180,000 square kilometers (about 69,500 square miles) with a population of approximately 60,280,000.
- Its capital, Wuhan, is located in the southeastern part of the province.
- Hubei's economy is the 10th largest in the country
- Its nominal GDP for 2008 was 1.13 trillion yuan (US$163 billion) and a per capita of 19,884 RMB (US$2,863).