Aviva (AV.)

[EthicsGradient]

If you look back to the bottom of page 8 of this Aviva thread, you'll find several pages of what this does or doesn't mean from last year. I remember it as more heat than light. My gut feeling is that it meant very little last year, and means very little this year.

[GoSeigen]

I do not think that shareholders are being in the least disadvantaged by this by I am not an accountant.

Indeed. I think actually it is being done to benefit the shareholders. The disadvantage will be borne by creditors and preference shareholders which is why they will get a chance to argue the toss in court.


GS

[idpickering]

Aviva plc Q1 2023 Trading Update.

Another quarter of positive delivery. Continued growth momentum across the Group

Strong and resilient capital position. Share buyback nearing completion

On track to meet or exceed Group targets

Amanda Blanc, Group Chief Executive Officer, said:

"We have delivered an encouraging start to 2023 and continue to build clear trading momentum. New business volumes are good, despite persistent economic uncertainty, and we delivered another quarter of strong growth across our diversified business.

"Private healthcare sales grew by 25%, as more individuals and companies are attracted to the benefits of private cover. The bulk purchase annuity market is very active due to the higher rate environment, and we have now completed over £2 billion of deals so far this year. Our workplace pensions business is also very buoyant, with flows up 25% due to 134 new scheme wins and higher wages feeding through to higher pension contributions.

"Our general insurance business goes from strength to strength. We have grown premiums 11% and maintained attractive levels of profitability, thanks to our disciplined management of inflationary pressures and our balanced mix across personal and commercial lines, and across the UK, Ireland and Canada.

"Aviva is uniquely placed to successfully navigate the prevailing economic environment, and we continue to support our customers through this challenging time. We have market leading positions in high growth areas. We are financially strong with an attractive and growing dividend, and we are confident in the prospects for Aviva."

https://www.investegate.co.uk/announcement/7540058

Ian (No holding).

[monabri]

Cevian sell their stake.

https://www.ft.com/content/6c859d35-81b ... 49de6936f9

"Activist investor Cevian Capital said Aviva had been “transformed from a poorly performing conglomerate to a focused and well-performing insurance company” as it sold out of the company three years after taking a stake.

Cevian had held 150mn shares in October, making it one of FTSE 100-listed Aviva’s largest shareholders with a 6.5 per cent stake, but had since reduced its holding to about 60,000 shares."


The gradual sale of ~150mn shares since October and the final tranche today. Not a good day for the Aviva shareprice. I wouldn't have thought that today's sale of 60k shares ( from 3.917 billion in circulation) would have precipitated such a fall.

[formoverfunction]

I've seen commentary suggesting it was performance of the wealth division, overall I thought they were acceptable results and I am planning to add if they remain under 400p for any time.

[idpickering]

Completion of £300m share buyback programme.

Aviva plc ("Aviva") announces that it has successfully completed its share buyback programme (the "Programme") which was notified to the market on 9 March 2023.

As a result of the Programme, Aviva acquired 72,797,191 ordinary shares of 3217/19 pence each ("Shares") at an average price of 412 pence per Share.

As at close of business on 1 June 2023, Aviva had 2,744,063,454 issued ordinary shares admitted to trading, of which 5,908,379 are pending cancellation under the Programme. The rest of the shares acquired under the Programme have already been cancelled. Aviva does not hold any shares in treasury and therefore, net of shares pending cancellation, Aviva has 2,738,155,075 shares each admitted to trading.

https://www.investegate.co.uk/announcement/7556358

Ian (No holding).

[idpickering]

Aviva 2022 comparative results IFRS 17 and IFRS 9.

Aviva plc ("Aviva" or the "Group") has released presentation slides and a financial information pack on its website, providing initial unaudited comparative information for the six months to 30 June 2022 and the year to 31 December 2022, restated for the adoption of IFRS 17 and IFRS 9.

Charlotte Jones, Group Chief Financial Officer, commented:

"The adoption of IFRS 17 is a significant milestone for the insurance industry, and provides a comprehensive and more consistent approach to accounting for insurance contracts. The operating profit and balance sheet impacts we are announcing today are consistent with our previous guidance, and there is no impact to the underlying economics of our business, our strategy or dividend guidance."

No impact to strategy, capital generation, dividend guidance, or capital return outlook

· Cash remittances, capital generation and approach to capital allocation are unchanged by IFRS 17.

· Solvency II, an important basis under which the Group is managed, is unaffected.

· There is no impact on our dividend guidance for 2023 of c.£915m, with low-to-mid single digit growth in the cash cost of the dividend thereafter.

· Our intention for regular and sustainable returns of capital to shareholders is unchanged.

· We remain confident in meeting or exceeding our Group financial targets for cash remittances, own funds generation and cost reduction. These targets are unchanged under IFRS 17.

https://www.investegate.co.uk/announcem ... -9/7640821

Ian (No holding).

[idpickering]

Aviva plc Half Year Report 2023.

Strong first half with profitable growth momentum across the Group

Group operating profit‡,1 up 8% and Solvency II own funds generation‡ up 26%

Confident outlook for 2023, expect to exceed Group medium-term targets

Interim dividend per share up 8% to 11.1p

Div 11.1p ps, ex div 24 Aug 23 paid 05 Oct 23.

https://www.investegate.co.uk/announcem ... 23/7698322

Ian (I hold).

[idpickering]

Issued separately for some reason?

Dividend Declaration.

https://www.investegate.co.uk/announcem ... on/7698464

Ian.

[idpickering]

Aviva to exit Singlife joint venture.

· Aviva to exit Singlife joint venture for total consideration of £0.8 billion, including sale of debt instruments1,2,3

· Transaction further simplifies the group's geographic footprint and supports the focus on capital-light business units

Aviva plc ("Aviva") today announces that it has agreed to sell its 25.9% stake in Singapore Life Holdings Pte Ltd ("Singlife"), together with two debt instruments, to Sumitomo Life Insurance Company ("Sumitomo Life") for total consideration of £0.8 billion (SGD 1.4 billion) payable in cash at closing.1,2,3 Sumitomo Life will pay consideration of £0.5 billion (SGD 0.9 billion) for Aviva's equity stake and £0.3 billion (SGD 0.5 billion) for the two debt instruments. Sumitomo Life is currently a 23.2% shareholder in Singlife and sees Singapore as a key market within its overall Southeast Asia strategy.

Amanda Blanc, Group Chief Executive Officer of Aviva, said:

"This is a good outcome for Aviva. The transaction further simplifies the business and we are in a very strong position to build on our trading momentum in the UK, Ireland and Canada."

In 2022, Singlife contributed £17 million to Aviva's operating profit.4 The combined carrying value of the equity stake and debt holdings contributed £729 million to Aviva's IFRS 17 net asset value as at 30 June 2023. The transaction would have increased Aviva's Solvency II shareholder surplus as at 30 June 2023 by £0.4 billion and the Solvency II shareholder ratio by c.8 percentage points.1 It would have increased centre liquidity by £0.8 billion.1 The equity value represents a multiple of 2.2x Solvency II Unrestricted Tier 1 capital as at June 2023.

Aviva's exit from the Singlife joint venture represents a further step in the simplification of Aviva's footprint following the international disposal programme completed in 2021. It is also consistent with the group's ambition to focus on its capital-light business units. Aviva sold its majority stake in Aviva Singapore to a consortium led by Singlife in 2020.

The disposal proceeds will be considered alongside Aviva's existing capital management framework. Under this framework, any surplus capital is available for reinvestment in the business, bolt-on M&A, and/or additional returns to shareholders.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals where required, and is expected to complete in Q4 2023.

https://www.investegate.co.uk/announcem ... al/7751786

Ian.

[idpickering]

Aviva to acquire AIG's protection business.

Aviva plc ("Aviva") today announces the acquisition of AIG Life Limited ("AIG Life UK") from Corebridge Financial, Inc. ("Corebridge"), a quoted subsidiary of American International Group, Inc. ("AIG"), for consideration of £460m. The transaction builds upon Aviva's momentum in the protection market, where Aviva has delivered strong organic growth through an award winning2 business. Aviva's protection business offers high quality customer propositions and continual improvements to the experience of customers and intermediaries. The acquisition positions existing AIG Life UK customers to benefit from Aviva's expertise and financial strength.

AIG Life UK provides a full suite of individual and group protection products, with 1.3m1 individual protection customers and 1.4m1 group protection members.

Amanda Blanc, Group Chief Executive Officer of Aviva, said:

"This acquisition brings significant strategic and financial benefits to Aviva. It strengthens our prospects in the highly attractive UK protection market and continues our progress in repositioning the Group towards capital-light growth. We look forward to welcoming our new customers and colleagues to Aviva."

https://www.investegate.co.uk/announcem ... ss/7773857

Ian (I hold AV.).

[idpickering]

JEFFERIES UPGRADES AVIVA TO 'BUY'.

Jefferies upgraded Aviva on Wednesday to 'buy' from 'neutral' and lifted the price target by 26% to 480p as it pointed to "turning tides".
The bank said it expects Aviva to deliver a best-in-class capital return yield, underpinned by a strong Solvency II ratio and the best free cash flow yield versus UK life insurance peers.

"We forecast £5.3bn of capital returns between 2023-26F, equivalent to 51% of Aviva's current market cap," it said.

"Our capital generation forecasts for 2025F (£1.69bn) are 10% ahead of consensus largely driven by our more positive outlook in General Insurance (GI)."

Jefferies said earnings should start to shift towards capital-light business, which is well-timed given improving market conditions, and should warrant a premium valuation versus peers.

https://www.hl.co.uk/shares/shares-sear ... 1719-pence

This is from the company news area of this stocks' page on HL.

Ian.

[monabri]

https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/a ... 023-10-06/

"LONDON, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Shares in Aviva (AV.L) shot up almost 9% on Friday, after Britain's Times newspaper cited talk of a possible takeover of one of the UK's largest insurers by a foreign buyer."

Still cheap.

[Padders72]

Has anyone found the original source article? I have searched the last couple of days of The Times and can't find anything.

[kempiejon]

I have been in and out of Aviva a few times over the years, managed to make a dollar in the early 2000s when I was trying to trade cheap shares. Then a few years later when bought it for income it came unstuck and spent about a decade whipsawing the dividend every 3 or 4 years.
I still have a bit and the income has been moving in the right direction again albeit from a lower base. It has recovered to above pre covid levels now and I would be happy if that trend continued. A takeover is always a frustration as it sometimes leaves me with a share I hadn't picked or at the least a corporate action to decide about.

[kempiejon]

Has anyone found the original source article? I have searched the last couple of days of The Times and can't find anything.

Good point I did see a reference to Wednesday, Dom Walsh business journo at the Times but I don't subscribe.

[EthicsGradient]

Has anyone found the original source article? I have searched the last couple of days of The Times and can't find anything.

No, I can't find it from The Times. However, Shares magazine points out the rumours started on the FT's Betaville blog as "uncooked" and "unclear", and gives another quote from The Times article (not that this has helped in finding the original):

On Wednesday afternoon, the Financial Times’ ‘Betaville’ blog suggested Aviva was the subject of potential takeover interest although it described the identity of the buyer as ‘unclear’ and called the story ‘uncooked’, a term used to refer to market gossip.

In this morning’s market report, The Times commented that the takeover chatter surrounding Aviva ‘refused to die down’ and that ‘City sources insisted at least two potential suitors were running a slide rule over the business, attracted by its excess capital and strong cash flow’.

The paper reported market talk that Allianz (ALV:ETR) of Germany, Intact Financial Corporation (IFC:TSE) of Canada and the Scandinavian group Tryg (TRYG:CPH) were ‘considering their options’, along with an unnamed US insurer, with ‘at least one’ mulling a 600p per share proposal.

https://www.sharesmagazine.co.uk/news/s ... s-to-swirl

[Itsallaguess]

Has anyone found the original source article?

I have searched the last couple of days of The Times and can't find anything.

I suspect it might be this Times article from yesterday -

In the FTSE 100, meanwhile, the chatter surrounding Aviva refused to die down. Shares of the insurer followed Wednesday’s 3.2 per cent increase with a rather more modest rise of ½p, or 0.2 per cent, to 388¼p, although City sources insisted that at least two potential suitors were running a sliderule over the business, attracted by its excess capital and strong cashflow.

The talk is that the likes of Allianz of Germany, Intact Financial Corporation of Canada and the Scandinavian group Tryg are considering their options, with at least one mulling a £6 a share proposal. An American insurer is also rumoured to be interested in Aviva, which last weekend revealed it was backing a £1 billion cancer research and treatment campus in London.

https://archive.ph/vs0tk

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[formoverfunction]

Jefferies upgraded Aviva last week to 'buy' from 'neutral' and put the price target price (up by 26% ) @ 480p. They mentioned "turning tides".

[idpickering]

Jefferies upgraded Aviva last week to 'buy' from 'neutral' and put the price target price (up by 26% ) @ 480p. They mentioned "turning tides".

Thanks.

I posted on this page about that here; viewtopic.php?p=618818#p618818

Ian.