Aviva’s history is one of stitching together various insurers, which once gave it the unlovely name of CGNU. That was changed in 2002 to the made-up palindrome based on the Latin word for living.
The insurer, which has life and general insurance operations in Britain, Europe and Canada, has made healthy progress in the past few years. Mark Wilson, its New Zealand-born chief executive who has had a globe-trotting career, has succeeded in getting rid of poorly performing businesses, bringing its footprint down from 32 countries to 14. He also has strengthened Aviva’s capital and breathed life back into its profits.
The more confident Aviva bought Friends Life in 2015 in a £5.6 billion deal that was the largest UK insurance acquisition in more than