Aviva reveals higher sales and profits on back of 'excellent trading' over past six months

It reported an operating profit of £875m for the first half of 2024, up 14 per cent on the same period a year earlier. This was ahead of analyst expectations.

The company reported that general insurance premiums grew by 15 per cent to £6bn across the whole group, with an 18 per cent rise in the UK and Ireland.

Premiums in the UK and Ireland rose as higher pricing and new propositions helped drive a 30 per cent increase for personal lines insurance, with commercial lines up 10 per cent.

Aviva also benefited from 49 per cent growth in its protections business, driven by its acquisition of AIG Life earlier this year.

Meanwhile, the company’s retirement division saw sales drop to £3.04bn, from £3.22bin, on the back of a contraction in the equity release market.

Jefferies analyst James Pearse said: “Aviva continues to demonstrate strong delivery versus its targets, beating consensus expectations across all its headline metrics.

“In our view, Aviva remains the only UK insurer that can reliably deliver long-term special capital returns, accretive M&A (mergers and acquisitions), attractive ordinary dividend growth, and consistent earnings-per-share growth.”

Amanda Blanc, Group Chief Executive Officer, said: “Sales are up. Operating profit is up. The dividend is up. Our plan to deliver more for customers and shareholders is working really well.

“We have achieved another six months of excellent trading. We have generated growth right across Aviva, thanks to our leading positions in attractive markets such as workplace pensions and general insurance in the UK and Canada.

“Aviva continues to benefit significantly from the balanced and diversified business we have built and lead. We are the only UK

insurer which can look after customers’ entire insurance, wealth and retirement needs, and this is paying off. We have 270,000

more customers this year and 4.9 million UK customers have more than one policy with us.

“We are the number one provider of workplace pensions and are planning to launch a new venture and growth capital strategy.

“This will open up new investment opportunities for our pension customers and could help unlock billions of pounds of investment into unlisted growth companies.

“We remain very positive about Aviva’s prospects. Trading conditions across the UK, Ireland and Canada, are excellent. And the UK market, our largest, is highly attractive and growing. We see many reasons to invest here, including greater economic stability and political certainty. This encouraging backdrop - and Aviva's continued strong financial performance - means we are

increasingly confident we can deliver even more for our customers and shareholders.”