Aviva Shares Jump as Guidance Remains Unchanged

Aviva (LON: AV.) shares jumped Wednesday morning after it told investors its general insurance businesses in the UK, Ireland, and Canada continued to trade positively over the closing months of 2022.

Aviva is set to host an ‘In Focus' investor and analyst briefing on its UK General Insurance Personal Lines business today. The company said that in the briefing, it will speak on the “strong and profitable growth opportunities” in attractive market segments, particularly retail and high net worth.

For the full-year 2022, Aviva sees a group combined operating ratio of around 94.6%, in line with the guidance in its third-quarter trading update in November. 

Meanwhile, Aviva said its dividend guidance and outlook for capital returns remain unchanged.

Furthermore, Aviva stated that weather experience for the full year 2022 has been broadly in-line with its long-term averages and marginally above its long-term averages in the fourth quarter. 

“Over the course of 2022, weather experience in the UK & Ireland was only marginally above LTA (+0.4pp), whilst it was below LTA in Canada (-0.9pp, with no fourth quarter weather events),” the company stated. “In the UK we have been focused on supporting our customers during and after December's freezing weather, for which we estimate a cost of c.£50m.”

Even so, the firm continues to price appropriately for the high inflation environment, particularly in UK Personal Lines.

Aviva shares are currently trading more than 2% higher on Wednesday.