Amanda Blanc, Group Chief Executive Officer, said:

“Sales are up. Operating profit is up. The dividend is up. Our plan to deliver more for customers and shareholders is working really well.

“We have achieved another six months of excellent trading. We have generated growth right across Aviva, thanks to our leading positions in attractive markets such as workplace pensions and general insurance in the UK and Canada.

“Aviva continues to benefit significantly from the balanced and diversified business we have built and lead. We are the only UK insurer which can look after customers’ entire insurance, wealth and retirement needs, and this is paying off. We have 270,000 more customers this year and 4.9 million UK customers have more than one policy with us.

“We are the number one provider of workplace pensions and are planning to launch a new venture and growth capital strategy. This will open up new investment opportunities for our pension customers and could help unlock billions of pounds of investment into unlisted growth companies.

“We remain very positive about Aviva’s prospects. Trading conditions across the UK, Ireland and Canada, are excellent. And the UK market, our largest, is highly attractive and growing. We see many reasons to invest here, including greater economic stability and political certainty. This encouraging backdrop – and Aviva’s continued strong financial performance – means we are increasingly confident we can deliver even more for our customers and shareholders.”

Strong first half results with continued profitable growth momentum

• Group operating profit up 14% to £875m (HY23: £765m).
• Solvency II operating own funds generation (Solvency II OFG) up 10% to £758m (HY23: £686m). Underlying Solvency II OFG up 27% to £768m (HY23: £605m).
• Solvency II operating capital generation (Solvency II OCG) up 17% to £722m (HY23: £618m). Underlying Solvency II OCG up 42% to £739m (HY23: £522m).
• Solvency II return on equity 12.4% (HY23: 11.5%).
• Cash remittances up 16% to £959m (HY23: £825m).
• Insurance, Wealth & Retirement (IWR) sales up 12% to £19.7bn (HY23: £17.6bn).
• General Insurance premiums up 15% to £6,005m (HY23: £5,274m). Undiscounted COR of 95.4% (HY23: 94.8%) and discounted COR of 91.5% (HY23: 91.3%).
• IFRS profit for the period of £654m (HY23: £415m).

Capital position is strong and resilient

• Solvency II shareholder cover ratio of 205% (FY23: 207%) and centre liquidity (Jul 24) of £1.5bn (Feb 24: £1.9bn).
• Solvency II debt leverage ratio of 31.1% (FY23: 30.7%) or 28.8% pro forma for the Tier 2 notes redeemed on 3 July 2024
• Interim dividend per share up 7% to 11.9p (HY23: 11.1p)
• £300m share buyback executed in the first half, and we anticipate further regular and sustainable returns of capital in the future.

Continued capital-light growth momentum

• UK&I General Insurance premiums up 18% to £3,809m (HY23: £3,219m) and undiscounted COR of 95.8% (HY23: 96.3%). UK personal lines premiums grew by 30% driven by strong pricing discipline in the inflationary environment and new propositions. UK commercial lines premiums grew 10% due to pricing actions and new business growth.
• Canada General Insurance premiums up 10% to £2,196m (HY23: £2,055m) and undiscounted COR of 94.7% (HY23: 92.8%). We saw excellent growth of 14% in personal lines and 6% in commercial lines driven by pricing actions and strong new business growth.
• Protection sales up 49% following completion of the AIG UK protection (‘AIG’) acquisition in April and Health in-force premiums up 10%.
• Wealth net flows of £5.0bn (HY23: £4.3bn) up 16%, or 6% of opening Assets Under Management (AUM) as Platform flows see significant improvement. AUM grew to £186bn (FY23: £170bn).
• Retirement sales of £3,036m (HY23: £3,223m) were lower, driven by contraction of the Equity Release market and BPA sales of £2.3bn (HY23: £2.4bn). As of today, volumes for completed BPA schemes have risen to £4.1bn. VNB was up 41% to £105m reflecting improved margins of 3.4% (HY23: 2.3%).
• Aviva Investors is a core enabler of growth for the Group. In the first half it originated £1.4bn of real assets for our annuities business, and c.70% of Workplace net flows went into Aviva Investors funds. External net flows remained positive at £0.3bn (HY23: £0.2bn).