Aviva Appoints Amanda Blanc as CEO

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Aviva Appoints Amanda Blanc as CEO

Post by BeautifulSunshine » Mon Jul 06 2020 3:06pm

Shares in FTSE 100 group climb as shareholders anticipate big changes at UK insurer

Amanda Blanc

Amanda Blanc: ‘We will look at all our strategic opportunities, and at pace’

Oliver Ralph 2 HOURS AGO


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Aviva has appointed Amanda Blanc as its new chief executive in an unexpected move that increases the prospect of a radical restructuring at one of Britain’s biggest insurers.

Ms Blanc, who has previously run businesses at Axa and Zurich, takes over immediately from Maurice Tulloch who Aviva said had stepped down for family health reasons.

Mr Tulloch exits after slightly more than a year in the job in which his efforts to revamp Aviva, including selling off its Hong Kong business, disappointed some shareholders. With a life insurance, general insurance and asset management business, Aviva has been criticised for lacking a clear strategy.

“We will look at all our strategic opportunities, and at pace,” Ms Blanc said in comments suggesting there could be big changes ahead. “I have been on the Aviva board since the start of this year and have a good understanding of where the business has its strengths and what actions we should take across our portfolio.”

Ms Blanc, who ran Axa’s UK business and Zurich’s European operation, was the first female chair of the Association of British Insurers.

“For investors I will address the underperformance of recent years and set a strategic path that is ambitious,” Ms Blanc added. “I am not a business as usual person and I haven’t come here to do a business as usual job.”

Shares in Aviva, whose disappointing performance in recent years has been compounded by the coronavirus crisis, jumped more than 4 per cent on Monday.

The pandemic will trigger big payouts in some lines of business at Aviva, which, like rivals, has been embroiled in the controversy about whether the industry should pay out on claims under business interruption policies. Aviva suspended its dividend earlier this year.


The change at the top will spark fresh speculation about whether Aviva, whose biggest business is in the UK but also has operations in Europe and Asia, is heading for a break-up.

Alan Devlin, an analyst at Shore Capital, said: “The appointment of a new CEO will make another round of restructuring at Aviva inevitable, and given the markets’ lacklustre response to Tulloch’s restructuring, the pressure [will] mount to do something more radical.”


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Mr Tulloch sold operations in Hong Kong and Indonesia but pulled back from plans to sell the businesses in Singapore and China.

Colm Kelly, an analyst at UBS, said that the company should focus on its domestic life and general insurance businesses.

“Aviva needs to leverage its competitive advantage, which is its brand and its composite insurance model in the UK,” he said. “Creating a national champion in the UK is one strategic path.”

He added: “There are opportunities to review some of the businesses in Asia and Europe with a view to optimising the footprint.”

One other option long discussed by bankers is to split the UK life and general insurance businesses. Although the so-called composite model — which mixes both types of insurance — is popular in continental Europe, there are no longer any other big composite insurers in the UK.

After leaving Zurich last year, Ms Blanc had taken on a series of non-executive roles, many of which were with insurtech start-ups such as RightIndem and Laka. She has now stepped down from almost all of those roles.

Aviva chairman George Culmer, who has only been in the role since last month, said: “I know she will bring real dynamism to Aviva and re-establish our credentials as a high-performing, innovative and customer-centric business.”
Source:
https://www.ft.com/content/292067b2-794 ... 97de63cbd2

And the share price has shot up as the new CEO has stepped forward.

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