Aviva, Britain's biggest insurer, today posted an 18% rise in nine-month life and pensions sales, helped by strong growth in Ireland, Britain and Italy. Aviva owns Hibernian Life and Pensions here.
Aviva said that through the bancassurance partnership with AIB, Hibernian's new business sales increased by 79% to £902m sterling. New business contribution was £19m, up from £13m a year earlier.
Sales through AIB, which started in January, amounted to £424m, representing a substantial improvement on 2005. These sales comprised £314m of life sales, consisting primarily of single premium bonds, and £110m of pension sales.
Aviva said that life sales benefited from the reopening of the Hibernian property fund in July with sales through the bank channel of £49m. It added that the integration with Ark Life is proceeding according to plan and there have been a number of new product developments specifically designed for the bank channel.
Aviva said life and pensions new business climbed to £19.13 billion sterling. The same time a year ago, life and pensions sales totalled £16.26 billion.
It said the profit contribution from sales over the period rose 16% to £666m, within forecasts though slightly shy of an average forecast of £672m. Its profit margin was flat at 3.5%.
The international business saw total sales rise 11% to £12.254 billion in the nine months, above a 10% organic sales growth target set in June, thanks to a 13% rise in Italy and that 79% jump in Irish sales.
Aviva said total sales in the UK rose 39% to £10.464 billion - already ahead of sales for all of 2005. It said individual and group pension sales, up 71% and 16% respectively, benefited from an April reform of the pension system allowing people to save more for retirement.
The insurer, which makes just under half its profits in Britain, said last month it would cut 4,000 jobs at its UK business Norwich Union as part of a planned shake-up it says will deliver annual cost savings of £250m.
