Aviva re-enters Lloyd's market with US$300 million acquisition

BRITISH insurer Aviva said on Monday (Mar 4) it has re-entered the Lloyd’s insurance market with a US$307 million acquisition of insurance platform Probitas.

The deal includes taking over Probitas’s fully-integrated Lloyd’s platform and bolsters Aviva’s global corporate and speciality business, the company said.

“Aviva’s presence in the Lloyd’s market opens up new opportunities to accelerate growth in our capital-light General Insurance business,” Aviva CEO Amanda Blanc said.

Analysts at Jefferies said the deal would be accretive to Aviva’s non-life margins. Shares in the company were down 0.4 per cent in early trading.

Blanc said in August last year that the insurer was interested in entering the historic Lloyd’s of London commercial market.

Aviva said Probitas’s existing management team would continue to run the business and that the brand would be retained. REUTERS