Aviva surges on takeover speculation

(Sharecast News) - Aviva surged on Friday after markets blog Betaville suggested in one of its 'uncooked' alerts that the insurance group was at the centre of takeover talk. Citing people following the situation, Betaville said there were rumours that Aviva has attracted interest from a company looking to purchase the business.

However, the identity of the company circling Aviva is unclear. Previous reports have suggested German insurance group Allianz has looked at buying a blue-chip London-listed insurer, such as Aviva.

French insurance giant Axa has also been acquisitive in the past, Betaville noted, having paid $15bn for Bermudan-based XL Group in 2018.

Other insurance firms that have been acquisitive in the UK insurance market include Canada's Intact Financial Group and Scandinavian firm Tryg, it said. They paid £7.2bn for London-listed RSA in 2020.

Intact Financial Group also recently bought Direct Line's brokered commercial lines operations for an initial payment of £520m to bolster its UK operations.

At 0840 BST, the shares were up 7.3% at 416.67p.