Aviva pivoted from selling assets to buying them — Direct Line, Lloyd's and wealth

By 2024 Amanda Blanc's Aviva had finished the defensive half of its turnaround: roughly £8 billion ($10.8 billion) raised from selling eight businesses — exiting markets such as France, Italy and Poland — and about £10 billion returned to investors including dividends since she took over in July 2020, leaving the UK's second-largest insurer focused on three core markets: the UK, Canada and Ireland.

Then came the pivot to growth. In December 2024 Aviva pounced on struggling rival Direct Line for £3.7 billion, giving it a fifth of the UK motor insurance market; in March 2024 it paid £242 million for Probitas, returning to the Lloyd's of London market after two decades; and in 2022 it had bought adviser Succession Wealth for £385 million to stem the £6 billion of pension and heritage assets leaving Aviva for rivals each year. Wealth is soon expected to account for a tenth of earnings.

The market has rewarded the sequence: Aviva shares are up around 150 per cent since Blanc took over, and the company counts nearly 22 million UK customers — second only to Lloyds among banks and insurers. Analysts expected first-half 2026 operating profit of about £1.3 billion, up 17.5 per cent, when it reported that August. Open questions remain: patchy performance in some Aviva Investors funds, autonomous vehicles' threat to motor insurance, and whether buying growth makes Aviva resemble the European composites that once traded at a conglomerate discount.

Shares up ~150% since 2020; H1 2026 operating profit expected ~£1.3B (+17.5%); wealth heading toward a tenth of earnings; ~£10B returned to investors.

Rationalisation gave Aviva three concentrated markets and the balance sheet to buy growth rather than spread it thin.

Direct Line's distress let Aviva consolidate a fifth of UK motor insurance while its rival was weak.

The £385M Succession Wealth deal attacked a specific leak: £6B of pension assets departing to rivals each year.

A turnaround earns the right to grow: only after selling eight businesses and refocusing on three markets could Aviva buy growth without reviving the conglomerate discount.

Half-year 2026 results were due days after the analysis, with growth expected to be strongest in UK and Ireland general insurance thanks partly to Direct Line. Blanc's six-year record — disposals, £10B of returns, three acquisitions and a roughly 150% share price gain — left investors asking what the encore would be.