Aviva plc is a British
multinational insurance
Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...
company headquartered in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, England. It has about 18 million customers across its core markets of the United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada.
In the United Kingdom, Aviva is the largest general insurer and a leading life and pensions provider. Aviva is also the second largest general insurer in Canada.
Aviva also has a focus on the growth markets of
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
and South East Asia through investments and joint ventures with other firms. Aviva has a primary listing on the
London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...
, and is a constituent of the
FTSE 100 Index
The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is a share index of the 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange with (in principle) the highest market ...
.
Name
The name of the company upon its formation in May 2000 was CGNU plc and was created when Norwich Union merged with insurer CGU. In April 2002, the company's shareholders voted to change the company name to Aviva plc, an invented
palindrome
A palindrome is a word, number, phrase, or other sequence of symbols that reads the same backwards as forwards, such as the words ''madam'' or ''racecar'', the date and time ''11/11/11 11:11,'' and the sentence: "A man, a plan, a canal – Panam ...
word derived from "viva", the Latin for 'alive' and designed to be short, memorable and work worldwide. The Norwich Union brand, however, was retained for the UK long-term savings and general insurance business.
In April 2008, Aviva announced that it would adopt the Aviva name as its worldwide consumer facing brand, and that the Norwich Union brand would be phased out in the United Kingdom.
History
Aviva can trace its history back to the establishment of the
Hand in Hand Fire & Life Insurance Society
The Hand in Hand Fire & Life Insurance Society was one of the oldest British insurance companies.
History
The company was founded in 1696 at Tom's Coffee House in St Martin's Lane in London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in ...
in London in 1696.
![Gas Lamp no](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/Gas_Lamp_no._313_London_and_Lancashire_Fire_and_Life_in_Dublin.jpg)
It was created by a merger of two British insurance firms,
Norwich Union and
CGU plc (itself created by the merger of 1998 of
Commercial Union and
General Accident) as CGNU in February 2000. The Aviva name was adopted in July 2002. Thereafter, most of the group operations, except for some strong local brands, were carried out under the uniform brand "Aviva".
In 2002, Aviva purchased Abeille Vie, a French life insurance company.
In March 2005, Aviva acquired the
RAC plc breakdown recovery operation for around £1.1 billion.
In July 2006, Aviva greatly increased its presence in the United States by acquiring AmerUs Group, a
Des Moines
Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, ...
based financial services company founded in 1896 in a $2.9 billion (£1.6 billion) deal.
The launch was supported by a £9 million advertising campaign to promote the rebranding (one of the most expensive ever in the insurance field), with the participation of celebrities including
Bruce Willis and
Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier, February 4, 1948) is an American rock singer whose career spans over five decades. With a raspy voice and a stage show that features numerous props and stage illusions, including pyrotechnics, guillot ...
. In June 2009, the company decided to dispose of ''Navigator'', its Australian wealth management business, to
National Australia Bank
National Australia Bank (abbreviated NAB, branded nab) is one of the four largest financial institutions in Australia (colloquially referred to as "The Big Four") in terms of market capitalisation, earnings and customers. NAB was ranked 21st-la ...
for A$825 million (£401 million).
In October 2009, the company decided to focus on its commercial insurance sector and demonstrate its commitment to brokers by launching their 'find a broker' facility, using the British Insurance Brokers Association search engine. To help them with this endeavour,
Paul Whitehouse was recruited to play the part of a successful hairdresser running three salons. The message of the campaign focused on business insurance through
insurance brokers.
In September 2011, Aviva completed the sale of
RAC plc breakdown recovery operation for £1.0 billion to
The Carlyle Group
The Carlyle Group is a multinational private equity, alternative asset management and financial services corporation based in the United States with $376 billion of assets under management. It specializes in private equity, real assets, and pri ...
. In February 2012, Aviva sold its occupational health business to the British support services company
Capita.
In July 2012, Aviva announced plans to sell or close 16 non core businesses in order to simplify its activities and boost shareholder returns.
As part of the plans Aviva announced the sale of its operations in South Korea and the closure to new business of its bulk buying annuity unit in the United Kingdom.
[ In August 2012, Aviva announced that up to 800 jobs would be lost, following a reorganization caused by further turmoil in the ]Eurozone
The euro area, commonly called eurozone (EZ), is a currency union of 19 member states of the European Union (EU) that have adopted the euro (€) as their primary currency and sole legal tender, and have thus fully implemented EMU policies ...
.
In December 2012, Aviva agreed to sell Aviva USA Corporation to Athene Holding
Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress of va ...
for US$1.8 billion (£1.1 billion) as part of a plan to improve shareholder returns and reduce the group's capital requirements, having paid $2.9 billion in 2006 and incurring a large loss on sale. Athene subsequently sold the life insurance business of Aviva to Global Atlantic.
On 13 April 2015, Aviva completed the £5.6 billion all share takeover of Friends Life Group. Andy Briggs
Andy Briggs (born 27 September 1972 in Liverpool, England) is a British author and screenwriter. He wrote the Hero.com series and the Villain.net young adult novels, which are due to be developed into a television series.
Briggs career began ...
, then group chief executive of Friends Life, became CEO of Aviva UK Life, with Mark Wilson continuing as CEO of the enlarged Aviva Group. In July 2016, Aviva froze withdrawals from the Aviva Investors Property Trust because of a lack of liquidity after Britain's vote to leave the European Union on 23 June. In September 2017, Aviva agreed to sell its Italian joint venture Avipop Assicurazioni
Aviva Italia Holding is an Italian holding company for the British multinational insurance company Aviva. According to Mediobanca, the group had a combined gross premiums written of €3,768,783,000 and was the 12th largest insurance company of ...
to Banco BPM
Banco BPM S.p.A. is an Italian bank that started to operate on 1 January 2017, by the merger of Banco Popolare and Banca Popolare di Milano (BPM) (approved by the board of directors on 24 May 2016). The bank is the third largest retail and corpora ...
for US$312.01 million (€265 million).
In March 2018, Aviva, controversially, announced that it "had the ability" to cancel its irredeemable preference shares at par. This caused a wider sell off in the preference share market in the United Kingdom. Also in March 2018 the company announced to spend around £600 million on so called "bolt on" acquisitions, that are in "Poland, Turkey, anywhere we have existing markets".
In October 2018, Mark Wilson agreed to step down as CEO with immediate effect, with Adrian Montague taking interim control of the company, pending Wilson's formal departure in 2019. Maurice Tulloch
Maurice Tulloch (born March 1969) is a British/Canadian businessman, who was the chief executive officer (CEO) of Aviva from March 2019 to July 2020.
Early life
Tulloch was born in March 1969 in Falkirk, Scotland. He has dual British and Cana ...
was appointed CEO in March 2019; however, he stood down in July 2020 for family health reasons and was replaced by Amanda Blanc
Amanda Blanc (born 1967) is a Welsh businesswoman who is the chief executive officer (CEO) of Aviva since July 2020. Aviva has 18.5 million customers across the UK, Ireland and Canada, £401 billion of group assets under management and 22,000 pe ...
, who previously served as an Independent Non-Executive Director of the company.
In November 2020, Avivia sold its stake in their Indonesian company Astra Aviva Life and their Hong Kong division.
In 2021, Aviva sold its French operations to Aéma Groupe. As part of the deal, Aviva agreed to indemnify Aéma against potential legal liabilities to Max-Hervé George. In May, Aviva completed the sale of its Turkish business, followed by businesses in Italy (Aviva Italia Holding
Aviva Italia Holding is an Italian holding company for the British multinational insurance company Aviva. According to Mediobanca, the group had a combined gross premiums written of €3,768,783,000 and was the 12th largest insurance company of I ...
) and Poland in December 2021.
Operations
Aviva's main activities are the provision of general and life insurance, long term savings products and fund management services. The group has around 31,000 employees and 18 million customers.[ Aviva Investors has £263 billion assets under management.
]
Principal subsidiaries
*United Kingdom
** Aviva Life – Pensions, investments, life insurance and long term savings ''(formerly Norwich Union)''
** Aviva Insurance – General Insurance (including the Quotemehappy brand)
** Aviva Investors
Aviva Investors is an asset management company and is part of the Aviva group.
History
The London unit, previously known as Morley, was founded in 1971 as Geoffrey Morley and Partners. This was bought by Globe Investment in 1988 and then sold to ...
– Fund Management ''(formerly Morley)
*Canada – Aviva Canada
Aviva Canada Inc. is a Canadian property and casualty insurance company and a wholly owned subsidiary of the UK-based Aviva plc. It provides home, personal, automobile, recreational vehicle, group and business insurance to more than three million ...
*China – Aviva-Cofco
*India – Aviva India
Aviva India is an Indian life assurance company, and a joint venture between Aviva plc, a British assurance company, and Dabur Group, an Indian conglomerate. Aviva began operations in July 2002 as a joint venture with Dabur Group, one of Indi ...
*Ireland
** Aviva Direct
** Aviva Health
*Singapore
Following the completion of Friends Life Group Limited in April 2015, Friends Provident International Limited is now part of the Aviva Group.[
]
Senior management
CEO Richard Harvey retired on 11 July 2007. His successor was Andrew Moss, the former group finance director. Moss was paid an annual base salary of £925,000 for his role as Chief Executive. Moss resigned on 8 May 2012, after shareholders voted down a proposed senior management pay deal which would have seen Moss increase his basic pay by 5% despite several years of Aviva underperformance.
Following the departure of Aviva's CEO, Andrew Moss, McFarlane assumed the role of executive deputy chairman and became executive chairman on 1 July 2012. On 20 November 2012, Aviva announced that Mark Wilson had been appointed CEO, starting 1 January 2013.
On 12 September 2014, Aviva announced that Sir Adrian Montague would become non executive chairman, on the retirement of John McFarlane at the Aviva AGM in April 2015. On 9 October 2018, the Aviva Board announced Mark Wilson was to step down, remaining as part of the company until April 2019 though on garden leave; with Sir Adrian Montague assuming executive responsibilities in the interim whilst a replacement candidate is sought. Maurice Tulloch was appointed CEO in March 2019;[ however, he stood down in July 2020 for family health reasons and was replaced by Amanda Blanc, who previously served as an Independent Non-Executive Director of the company.][
]Jason Windsor
Jason David Windsor (born July 16, 1982, in San Bernardino, California) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. A right-hander, he appeared in four games in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Oakland Athletics in 2006.
High schoo ...
was announced as chief financial officer in September 2019.
George Culmer took over as chairman from Sir Adrian Montague on 27 May 2020.
Sponsorships
In May 2008, Aviva became Norwich City Football Club
Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...
's main sponsor. In an advert from 2009 starring Paul Whitehouse, they feature a Plymouth Argyle F.C. fan who uses Aviva car insurance, followed by a Green Army chant. It also acquired the naming rights for the redeveloped Lansdowne Road stadium in Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
, Ireland, which was renamed the Aviva Stadium. In January 2018, the naming rights were extended to 2025.
Aviva sponsored rugby union's English Premiership from 2010 to 2018.
References
External links
Aviva plc Official site
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aviva Plc
Financial services companies established in 2000
Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange
Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange
Financial services companies based in the City of London
Multinational companies based in the City of London
British brands