Aviva is the worlds fifth-largest insurance group.

It is one of the leading providers of life and pension products in Europe and is actively growing its long-term savings businesses in Asian markets, Australia and the USA. The groups recent history is one of mergers to gain scale and thus competitive advantage. Unable to compete on its own in a market where scale matters, General Accident merged with Commercial Union to form CGU in 1998, which itself merged with Norwich Union in 2000 to form CGNU plc. This then subsequently changed to Aviva in July 2002 to strengthen its brand name. Avivas main activities are organised into two primary strategic areas: long-term savings and fund management, which includes a range of long-term savings, investment and protection products in markets that offer significant opportunities for growth; and general insurance, health and related services which provide a broad range of competitive motor, property, health and related insurance services to individuals and small to medium-sized enterprises. In 2007, the company had premium income and investment sales of 38.6bn, and 364bn of assets under management. While most of the groups businesses have been rebranded Aviva, some of its strongest consumer brands remain, including Norwich Union. Norwich Union is the UK's largest insurer, covering one in seven motor vehicles, and has a market share of around 15 per cent. It is one of the few insurers to embrace the latest telematic technologies to introduce more customised motor products and services for its customers, and has very much led the way in this area. Working in partnership with IBM and Orange, for the telematics software and network coverage respectively, Pay As You Drive was trialed back in 2003 and launched across the UK in October 2006. It uses the latest GPS technology to allow premiums to be calculated based on when, where and how far customers drive their vehicles. The service works by installing a GPS device the size of a DVD case in the car. This stores information about each car journey before transmitting it automatically to Norwich Union via a secure GSM network. The journey data is then translated into a bill, similar to a mobile phone bill, which provides details of each element used to calculate the premium. This comprises a fixed monthly fee to cover risks such as fire and theft, comparable to a line rental charge on a phone bill, and a variable amount based on recorded data such as mileage driven, roads used and time of day of each journey, etc. For young drivers, the primary target market, rates peak at night between 11pm and 6am, when figures show that young motorists are at much greater risk of having a major accident and seriously injuring themselves or others. For drivers aged over 24 rates vary according to the time of day and where they drive, with off-peak rates falling outside the morning rush hour and midnight to 5am. A year after the launch customer feedback was overwhelmingly positive with 90% looking to renew their policy, and with 30% fewer claims reported amongst all Pay As You Drive insurance customers, the road safety benefit is immediately clear. In a sector traditionally focused on price-driven annual renewal, this new service has changed the frequency of customer interaction, deepened the relationship with Aviva and, of great concern to others in the sector, enabled Aviva to increase its share of the all important first-time drivers market. As this and similar technologyenabled, customer-impacting services are rolled out across the companys key markets, despite escalating price competition, future growth for Aviva is anticipated.

Aviva plc is a British multinational insurance company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the sixth-largest insurance company in the world measured by net premium income and has around [3] 43 million customers across 21 countries. It is the market leader in both general insurance and life and [3] pensions in the UK and has major businesses in Asia, continental Europe and North America. Aviva has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It has a secondary listing on the New York Stock Exchange.
Contents

1 Name 2 History 3 Operations

3.1 Principal subsidiaries

4 Senior management 5 Sponsorships 6 References 7 External links

Name[edit]
The name of the company upon its formation in May 2000 was CGNU plc. In April 2002 the company's shareholders voted to change the company name to "Aviva plc", an invented word derived from "viva", the [5] Latin for 'life' and designed to be short, memorable and work worldwide. In April 2008 Aviva announced that it would adopt the "Aviva" name as its worldwide consumer-facing brand, and that the Norwich Union [6] brand would be phased out in the United Kingdom.
[4]

History[edit]
Aviva can trace its history back to the establishment of the Hand in Hand Fire & Life Insurance Society in [7] London in 1696.

Predecessor company London and Lancashire Fire and Life, pictured in Dublin, ca. 1871

It was created by a merger of two British insurance firms, Norwich Union and CGU plc (itself created by [9] the 1998 merger of Commercial Union and General Accident ) as CGNU in 2000. The Aviva name [10] was adopted in July 2002. Thereafter, most of the group operations, except for some strong local [11] brands, were carried out under the uniform brand "Aviva". During March 2005 Aviva acquired the RAC plc breakdown recovery operation for around 1.1 billion.
[12]

[8]

In July 2006, Aviva greatly increased its presence in the United States by acquiring AmerUs Group, a Des [13] Moines-based financial services company founded in 1896 in a $2.9 billion (1.6 billion) deal. AmerUs Group was rebranded as Aviva USA when the acquisition was completed.

The Company continued to use the Norwich Union name as a trading name in the UK until 1 June 2009 when it became formally known as Aviva within the United Kingdom. The launch was supported by a 9 million advertising campaign to promote the rebranding (one of the most expensive ever in the UK [14] insurance field), with the participation of celebrities including Bruce Willis and Alice Cooper. In June 2009 the Company decided to dispose of Navigator, its Australian wealth management business, [15] to National Australia Bank for A$825 million (401 million). In October 2009 the company decided to focus on its commercial insurance sector and demonstrate its commitment to brokers by launching their 'find a broker' facility, using the British Insurance Brokers Association search engine. To help them with this endeavour, Paul Whitehouse was recruited to play the part of a successful hairdresser running three salons. The message of the campaign focused on business [16] insurance through insurance brokers. The closing line of the campaign was "We're in business to keep you in business". In September 2011, Aviva completed the sale of RAC plc breakdown recovery operation for 1.0 billion [17] to The Carlyle Group. In February 2012, Aviva sold its occupational health business to the British support services [18][19] company Capita. In July 2012, Aviva announced plans to sell or close 16 non-core businesses in order to simplify its [20] activities and boost shareholder returns. As part of the plans Aviva announced the sale of its operations [20] in South Korea and the closure to new business of its bulk-buying annuity unit in the United Kingdom. In August 2012, Aviva announced that up to 800 jobs would be lost following a reorganization caused by [2] further turmoil in the Eurozone. In December 2012, Aviva agreed to sell Aviva USA Corporation to Athene Holding for US$1.8 billion (1.1 billion) as part of a plan to improve shareholder returns and reduce the group's capital [21][22] [23] requirements. Athene subsequently sold the life insurance business of Aviva to Atlantic Global.

Operations[edit]

St. Helen's, Aviva's world headquarters in London

Aviva's main activities are the provision of general and life insurance, long-term savings products and fund management services. The group has around 36,600 employees, 379 billion of assets under [3] management and 43 million customers.

Principal subsidiaries[edit]
United Kingdom Aviva Life Pensions, investments, Life Insurance and long term savings (formerly Norwich Union) Aviva Insurance General Insurance Aviva Investors Fund Management (formerly Morley Fund Management)

United States of America Aviva USA Corporation - headquartered in West Des Moines, Iowa

Ireland Aviva Direct Aviva Health

Poland Aviva Spain Netherlands Delta Lloyd Groep (43.1% shareholding) Canada Aviva Canada France Aviva France China Aviva-Cofco India Aviva India Malaysia CIMB Aviva Singapore Turkey AvivaSA Emeklilik Aviva Sigorta

Taiwan First Aviva (in Chinese language) Sri Lanka Russia - Aviva Russia Lithuania Italy Aviva Italia Holding S.p.A. South Korea - Woori Aviva

Former companies Australia: Aviva Investors Australia Ltd, sold to National Australia Bank in 2009.

Senior management[edit]
CEO Richard Harvey retired on 11 July 2007. His successor was Andrew Moss, the former group finance [24] [25] director. Moss was paid an annual base salary of 925,000 for his role as Chief Executive. Moss

resigned on 8 May 2012 after shareholders voted down a proposed senior management pay deal which would have seen Moss increase his basic pay by 5% despite several years of Aviva [26] underperformance. John McFarlane was appointed to the board of Aviva plc in September 2011. [26] Following the departure of Avivas CEO, Andrew Moss, McFarlane assumed the role of executive deputy chairman and became executive chairman on 1 July 2012. On 20 November 2012 Aviva [27] announced that Mark Wilson will become CEO on 1 January 2013.

Sponsorships[edit]
In May 2008 Aviva became Norwich City Football Club's main sponsor. In a 2009 television advert starring Paul Whitehouse they feature a Plymouth Argyle F.C. fan who uses Aviva car insurance followed [28] by a Green Army chant. It also acquired the naming rights for the redeveloped Lansdowne [29] Road stadium in Dublin, Ireland, and will now be called the Aviva Stadium. In 2010, Aviva also took over sponsorship of rugby union's English Premiership from Guinness. The four[30] year sponsorship deal is valued at 20 million.

References[edit]
1. 2. 3. 4. ^ ^ ^
a b a b

"Preliminary Results 2012" (PDF). Retrieved 16 March 2013. "August 24, 2012 - Aviva to Cut Up to 800 Jobs as McFarlane Reshapes Insurer". "Aviva plc Annual Report and Accounts 2011". Aviva plc. Retrieved 1 May 2012.

a b c

^ Gary Armstrong; Michael Harker; Philip Kotler; Ross Brennan (2009). Marketing: An Introduction. Pearson Education. p. 246. ISBN 978-0-273-71395-1. Retrieved 15 September 2012.

5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

^ "Changing the name of the game". The Scotsman. 3 May 2008. Retrieved 15 September 2012. ^ "Aviva scraps Norwich Union name". Reuters. 29 April 2008. Retrieved 15 September 2012. ^ "Aviva Heritage Events Timeline". Aviva plc. Retrieved 29 April 2011. ^ "CGU and Norwich Union merge". BBC News. 21 February 2000. ^ "Commercial Union, General Accident join".
[dead link]

10. ^ "Why only Aviva's directors will be 'living well'". The Telegraph. 19 March 2002. Retrieved 24 March 2012. 11. ^ "Aviva PLC". Retrieved 26 June 2013. 12. ^ "RAC History". Racnews.co.uk. 31 December 2007. Retrieved 17 April 2011. 13. ^ "Aviva to acquire AmerUs for $2.9 billion". NBCNews.com. 2006. Retrieved 8 May 2013. 14. ^ Cockcroft, Lucy (22 December 2008). "Bruce Willis and Elle Macpherson star in 9 million Norwich Union advert". The Daily Telegraph (London). 15. ^ NAB buys Aviva to become biggest life insurer Sydney Morning Herald, 22 June 2009 16. ^ Baker, Rosie (2 October 2009). "Aviva launches first ad aimed at business.". Marketing Week. Retrieved 3 November 2009. 17. ^ "Aviva completes the sale of RAC". aviva.com.