Aviva posted retirement sales that jumped in 2024, but its equity release business fell due to “lower levels of market activity.”
The financial services group said its retirement sales lifted 33% to £9.4bn last year, from 12 months ago, driven by its highest year of bulk purchase annuity sales which came in at £7.8bn.
But equity release new premiums slumped 38% to £265m, “due to lower levels of market activity and maintaining pricing discipline to ensure a sufficient investment return to support our annuity businesses”.
Its retirement business consists of bulk purchase company annuities, individual annuities and equity releases. The group manages the UK’s largest book of equity release mortgages, it said in its annual report.
The retirement business turned in an operating profit up 14% to £746m.
It added that UK and Ireland general insurance premiums were up 16% to £7.7bn. UK personal lines premiums grew by 22% boosted by “new business success in higher-margin retail business and favourable pricing”.
The group has 17 million customers in the UK across insurance, wealth, and retirement products.
In December, the business agreed a £3.6bn takeover of rival Direct Line.
Overall, the group posted an operating profit up 20% to £1.8bn.
Aviva group chief executive Amanda Blanc said: “We made clear strategic progress and delivered another set of very good numbers, with higher sales, higher operating profit and a higher dividend.
“The proposed acquisition of Direct Line is on track and is a clear opportunity to accelerate our capital-light growth, deliver brilliant service to millions more customers, and support the wider development of the UK economy.”
