British insurer Aviva is considering acquisitions in Poland and Turkey as it reported a 2 percent rise in operating profit and said it planned to return 500 million pounds to shareholders.
Aviva said it also planned to spend around 600 million pounds on “bolt-on” acquisitions and 900 million pounds on debt reduction.
Chief Executive Mark Wilson told a media call the firm was looking for purchases in “Poland, Turkey, anywhere we have existing markets”. “We have this pile of cash…it’s not burning a hole in our pocket, if we don’t spend it we will give it back.”, he added. The 600 million pound acquisition target includes Aviva’s 130 million euro purchase of Irish insurer Friends First late last year, it said in a trading statement.
Aviva’s operating profit was 3.1 billion pounds at the end of 2017, slightly above a forecast 3 billion and helped by strong performance in its UK division. Profits in Canada shrank, however, hurt by a rise in bodily injury claims and large commercial insurance and weather-related losses.
Aviva’s shares were down 1.7 percent to 498 pence at 0900 GMT, lagging a flat FTSE 100 index. It said it would pay a total dividend of 27.4 pence, up 18 percent and above a forecast 26.4 pence.
