Aviva share price highest since 2007 after profit jumps by a fifth
The latest results come as it said its tie-up with rival Direct Line was 'well under way'.
The company reported an operating profit of £1.1 billion for the first six months of 2025.
This was an increase of 22% compared with the same period a year ago.
Aviva said it was driven primarily by growth in its UK and Ireland general insurance business and wealth and retirement.
General insurance premiums – how much a customer pays for an insurance policy – leapt by 9% year-on-year to total £4.1 billion across the region.
Profits for the division soared by 50% thanks to strong underwriting activity and improved returns of investment in the UK.
But this was partly offset by the impact of Storm Eowyn in Ireland, where record-breaking winds cut electricity supplies to hundreds of thousands of homes, schools and businesses.
Aviva's share price jumped by about 4% on Thursday to hit the highest level since late 2007, before the global financial crisis.
Aviva completed its £3.7 billion takeover of Direct Line last month.
Aviva said that merging the two companies was now 'well under way' adding that it was 'moving at speed to improve performance, drive financial benefits and unlock the full potential of the combined business'.
Chief executive Amanda Blanc said: 'The combined business is a UK market leader with over 21 million customers, or four in 10 adults, and we are confident the deal will contribute significantly to Aviva's future growth.'
Richard Hunter, head of markets at interactive investor, said the takeover will 'further cement Aviva's leading positions particularly in the home and car insurance markets'.
He said: 'While car insurance has seen a substantial increase in premiums to the exasperation of many consumers, the space has been affected by both higher average new car prices as well as the costly nature of repairing increasingly complex and technologically advanced vehicles.'
Meanwhile Admiral, which sells car, home, travel and pet insurance, also said that its pre-tax profit soared by 69% over the first half of 2025, compared to 2024.
This was driven by its UK insurance division winning more sales and customers for motor policies.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
28 minutes ago
- BBC News
Spurs to accelerate move to sign Eze from Palace
Tottenham will accelerate their move to sign Crystal Palace forward Eberechi Eze with talks expected to progress in the next 48 two Premier League clubs have been in discussions over a move for Eze, 27, since the start of the sources have told BBC Sport that talks are progressing positively amid growing hope at Tottenham that a deal is now within face Chelsea on Sunday and there is emerging doubt over Eze's inclusion in the squad, which would provide an indication as to how close the clubs are to reaching an England international has an expired release clause in his contract which was worth an initial £60m, plus a further £8m in is understood Tottenham are negotiating an offer slightly below the total release figure. Palace are also in talks over selling captain Marc Guehi to Guehi and Eze are sold, the money will be reinvested into the squad with Leicester attacker Bilal El Khannouss among the players Palace are interested boss Thomas Frank is looking to bolster his options in the final third after attacking midfielder James Maddison was ruled out for the majority of the season with an anterior cruciate ligament Korea forward Son Heung-min left the club after 10 years earlier this month, having scored 173 goals in 454 appearances, while midfielder Dejan Kulusevski is still out after knee whose contract at Selhurst Park is due to expire in the summer of 2027, scored 14 goals across all competitions for Palace last season, including in their 1-0 win against Manchester City in the FA Cup joined Palace from Queens Park Rangers in a deal worth £19.5m in 2020 and has scored 40 goals in 168 appearances.
Reuters
28 minutes ago
- Reuters
Ambassador: 'I want that Super Bowl in Britain'
August 16 - England's ambassador to the United States wants the NFL to stage a Super Bowl in Great Britain. "I've made a big pitch for the first Super Bowl outside the U.S. to take place in Britain," Peter Mandelson told the Chicago Council on Global Affairs on Thursday, according to The Times, the oldest national daily newspaper in the U.K. "I want that Super Bowl in Britain. I don't care when it takes place, but I want it announced while I'm ambassador," he added. "We love it, we love it." The NFL has been playing regular-season games in England since 2007, but the jump to hosting a Super Bowl is as big as the Atlantic Ocean. In addition to the growing popularity of the league across Europe, Mandelson's interest likely includes a financial component. Net profits for host cities range anywhere from $150 million to $1 billion, depending on the source. Super Bowl LX is scheduled for Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Feb. 8, 2026, followed by Super Bowl LXI at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., in 2027 and Super Bowl LXII at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta in 2028. This season's international NFL slate includes games in Sao Paulo, Brazil; Madrid, Spain; Dublin, Ireland; Berlin, Germany; and three in London. --Field Level Media
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Why Aston Villa are missing Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio - and how Newcastle exploited their dire need to sign new players by shackling Youri Tielemans, writes JAMES SHARPE
Just before the hour mark, Aston Villa midfielder Boubacar Kamara collected the ball inside his own half, picked his head up, and spotted the run of Morgan Rogers ahead of him. Kamara tried to dink a little cross-field pass towards his Villa team-mate only to miscue it, caught it fat as a golfer would say, and like so many of his team's passes on the opening day of the new Premier League season, it ended up at the feet of a green shirt. He flung his head back and turned away in disgust. Seconds later, he brought down Anthony Gordon and found himself in Craig Pawson's notebook. Kamara's moment of frustration encapsulated Villa's goalless draw with Newcastle and made one thing abundantly clear: they need to sign some players. The problem is: they can't. Everyone knows Villa are locked in PSR's handcuffs. They have had to weaken their squad to keep in line with regulations. They are about to sell Jacob Ramsey to Newcastle for £40million but can't spend a penny of it. It was little surprise to hear Villa spend much of the second half voicing in musical form their opinion that the Premier League is 'corrupt as f***'. Villa last season could call on the precision of Marco Asensio and the speed and directness of Marcus Rashford, but not anymore. Villa are keen to get Asensio back on loan from Paris Saint-Germain and, boy, do they need him. 'We are ambitious, trying to respect the rules and trying to get the best players possible, trying to play the way we are: to be contenders for Europe and to compete like we did today,' said Emery afterwards on the current state of Villa's transfer window. 'We are not going to rest in case we can have some options in the transfer window.' In his programme notes, Emery had written that 'financial control rules came to football to avoid bankruptcies and payment defaults, with a good purpose. But as professionals we should review it, for this good tool will become a limitation for the clubs that are doing good management, who will never be allowed to dream and get higher goals.' Before kick-off, a huge display of Emery was hoisted into the air with a sign that read: 'No limits to our dreams'. There were plenty of limits to their team and to their play. The current state of Villa's squad meant that Emery started Youri Tielemans in the No10 role behind Ollie Watkins with Kamara and Amadou Onana behind them. It left Tielemans completely unable to dictate the game for Villa like he so often did last season. Whenever Villa had the ball, Newcastle sat deep in a 4-5-1 and the hosts just could not find a way through. They had no one to pull the strings. Kamara and Onana are both combative ball winners, and good at it, but neither possess the ability to pick locks like Tielemans – Newcastle's Bruno Guimaraes was the only Premier League midfielder to complete more passes between the lines last season. It left Villa producing one of their sloppiest passing performances in front of their own crowd in a long time, even if the result means it is now a full year since they last tasted league defeat at home. They mustered just three shots and none in the first half. The last time they faced Newcastle at home, back in April, they had 23 and won 4-1. That day, Tielemans picked out Watkins' run with a splitting pass for Villa to take the lead inside a minute. There was none of that here. Tielemans was so often too high up the field, surrounded by green shirts, happy to let his team-mates behind him pause and ponder. Villa Park's 73 per cent pass competition was their lowest in a home fixture since December 2023. Villa have only had less than the 41 per cent possession they had here in a home game four times since the start of 2023. The only time Tielemans moved into a deeper role was when Ezri Konsa became an early contender for Most Obvious Red Card of the Season for pulling back Anthony Gordon when clean through on goal. While Villa found it impossible to play through Newcastle, without the likes of Rasmey and Rashford they offered little width to go around them either. Rogers drifted centrally to support Watkins, as he usually does, on the few occasions Villa managed to get into decent areas while it was John McGinn tasked with staying wide down the right but had little impact on the game with little support from Matty Cash at full-back. It made you wonder what Donyell Malen had to do to earn a start, having scored twice and set up three goals during pre-season. He did eventually come on in the 84th minute and had attempted one Villa's three shots by the 86th. Watkins, who'd bagged five goals in pre-season, endured a difficult afternoon too. His first shot of the game came after the hour and only on a handful of times was able to burst into space, on one occasion pulling a ball back into the six-yard area and pulling his shorts up in frustration, Fabien Barthez-style, when there was no one there to get on the end of it. Much of Villa's goalscoring hopes rest on Watkins' shoulders, a player who has not always found it easy to hold Emery's trust with Rashford and Jhon Duran often rivalling him for minutes while at the club despite only Erling Haaland and Mo Salah scoring more Premier League goals than Watkins since promotion in 2020. There were still some positives for Emery to take from the game, their year-long unbeaten milestone aside. Villa battled well and kept their shape after going down to 10 men. For all the possession Newcastle had, they were still unable to fashion many clear-cut chances. And whenever they had one in the first half, debutant goalkeeper Marco Bizot was on hand to keep them out. The 34-year-old, one of few summer signings, beat away an early strike from Anthony Elanga before tipping Gordon's effort around the post. His antics late on to run the clock down, including pretending to roll the ball to every defenders in front of him before booting it upfield before his eight-second time-wasting counter had ticked down to zero, suggested the spirit of Emi Martinez still lives on between the Villa sticks.
