Aviva 9-month sales in line with expectations

LONDON (AFX) - Insurance group Aviva PLC turned in nine-month life and pension sales in line with market expectations, with a strong performance in continental Europe offsetting flat sales in the UK market.
Aviva, the UK's biggest insurer, said life and pension sales for the nine months to Sept 30 came in at 16.260 bln stg, in line with the 16.159-16.157 bln stg range of analysts' forecasts. Total sales including investment products came in at 17.933 bln stg, 12 pct up on the same period last year.
The improvement was driven by robust growth in Europe, where life and pensions sales rose 20 pct on the year to 8.778 bln stg. In contrast, UK life sales dipped 3 pct to 6.586 bln stg. Total sales In the UK stood at 7.441 bln stg, slightly higher than the 7.438 bln stg in the previous nine-month period.
Aviva has achieved strong growth in Europe over the past two years through distribution agreements with retail banks. But progress in the UK has been held back by a slower overall market growth rate, and by stiff competition from the likes of Prudential, Legal & General, and Friends Provident.
"This is another strong performance from our international portfolio of life businesses. Bancassurance continues to go from strenght to strength and is a key part of our multi-distribution approach," Aviva chief executive Richard Harvey said.
The contribution to profits from new life and pensions business over the nine months was 575 mln stg, a 13 pct increase year-on-year. The new business margin stood at 3.5 pct, compared with a margin of 3.4 pct for the whole of 2004.
Aviva shares closed at 635-1/2 pence on Wednesday.

Morning all,

Nice to have you back digger! Been away?

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LW
Had a few things to do in UK , now at home in the sun like G

wish I could join you both

not a good day to be an "investor"

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