Aviva operating profit surges to £875m

HIGHER premiums helped insurance giant Aviva post-better-than-expected half-year profit today.

- Michael Hunter

Operating profit came in at £875 million, up 14% and above the £830 million forecast. Aviva also upped its interim dividend by 7% to 11.9p per share.

It said that premiums in its General Insurance business were up 15% to just over £6 billion.

Sales of retirement products were lower, at £3.036 billion, down from £3.223 billion. The drop came due to a "contraction of the Equity Release market" and a £100 million fall in sales of "bulk purchase annuities", the deals made when companies offload their pension schemes, which slipped to £2.3 billion in the period.