Contained in Aviva’s third quarter results, the growth in Singapore’s long term savings sales from £412m to £496m was in contrast to the 3% fall in UK and Ireland sales, from £8.77bn to £8.47bn.
In Europe the sales picture was more gloomy than the UK, with Spain’s sales down just over a third at 34%, from £1.45bn to £934m, and Italy faring even worse with a fall of 36%, from £2.51bn to £1.6bn.
Total worldwide sales for the group dropped 5% from £30.33bn to £28.94bn.
John McFarlane, chairman of Aviva, said that in the latest quarter Aviva reduced its Delta Lloyd holdings and announced the sale of its business in Sri Lanka.
“While we are not yet in a position to make firm announcements on further non-core disposals, the progress is in line with planned timelines.
We can now confirm that we are in discussions with external parties with respect to our US life and annuities business and these are being actively pursued. While not agreed, any such sale would come at a substantial discount to IFRS book value, but would generate significant economic capital surplus."
He added: “Beyond this, there are eight smaller disposals which are now more likely to be in 2013, and we expect all to be done without a significant impact on the Group’s IFRS book value.”
McFarlane said that trading conditions remain difficult and results were mixed across the group:“We nevertheless have strong positions in the UK, Canada, France and Singapore and our performance has been good in these markets. In our life business in Spain and Italy markets are tough, driven by the external economic environment, with new business volumes considerably reduced. In Ireland, while a number of good actions are underway to improve performance, the results are not yet acceptable.
Although conditions will remain challenging, the strategic and transformational programmes should enable us to improve our financial performance and value significantly, making Aviva a better business for our customers, our people, our partners and a better investment for our shareholders.”
