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Aviva courts shareholders with a buyback boost to £1bn

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Aviva posted a 13% rise in its general insurance gross written premiums for the first nine months of the year.
Aviva posted a 13% rise in its general insurance gross written premiums for the first nine months of the year.

Aviva this morning said it will increase and extend the ordinary share buyback programme it announced in August from £750m to £1bn, expected to complete by the end of March next year.

It comes after the British insurance giant pledged “at least” £4bn to shareholders by next June after it came under pressure from activist investor Cevian to return excess capital next year after it completes the sale of a collection of non-core divisions.

But Aviva’s promise of £4bn fell short of the £5bn demanded by Cevian, which built a 5 per cent stake in Aviva and is its second-biggest shareholder after BlackRock.

“We are increasing our share buyback to £1 billion1 as part of our commitment to return at least £4bn to ordinary shareholders. We will update further on our capital return and dividend plans at our full year results in March 2022,” said Amanda Blanc, Group Chief Executive Officer.