Cleaning house

8 Mar 2018 By Aimee Donnellan Follow @aimeedonnellan

The UK insurer’s CEO Mark Wilson is using his newly created pile of cash to pay off expensive debt. The move has irked investors who were hoping for a bigger share buyback. But given Aviva’s legacy debt problems, cleaning up the balance sheet will reap its own rewards.

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Aviva on March 8 announced plans to give 500 million pounds back to shareholders having reported operating profit of 3.1 billion pounds for 2017, up 2 percent on the previous year.

The British insurer, which provides general and life insurance, also said in a statement it would spend 900 million pounds on debt reduction and spend a further 600 million pounds on bolt-on acquisitions.

Aviva’s full-year dividend will be 27.4 pence, up 18 percent and beating analysts’ forecasts.

Aviva’s shares were down 2 percent at 496.9 pence by 0910 GMT on March 8.

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