Aviva 2002 Annual Report Download - page 29

15 Aviva plc
Annual report + accounts 2002
Our biggest asset is the combined experience and talent of our
team of over 190 investment professionals. We continue to use
this experience to create better ways to manage our business,
including improved investment processes, restructured funds,
changes in asset allocation and managing appropriate levels
of risk.
Morley won a number of external accolades during the year,
including fund manager of the year in the Pensions Week
Awards, and achieved top ratings from Standard & Poor’s for
our emerging markets fund management team. We were also
awarded specialist manager of the year in the UK Pension Awards,
in recognition of our SRI expertise.
Our retail products, such as unit trusts and individual savings
accounts (Isas), are marketed under our Norwich Union brand.
Sales of £556 million (2001: £816 million) reflected caution among
private investors. Continuing investment in our retail business
resulted in an operating loss of £16 million (2001: £32 million).
Norwich Union was named best UK insurance fund manager in
Standard & Poor’s UK Investment Funds Performance Awards for
the second consecutive year.
France
Aviva Gestion d’Actifs (formerly Victoire Asset Management) has a
reputation for strong investment performance, with around 70%
of our funds in the top quartile for returns over three years.
We have £58 billion of assets under management, most of which
are invested on behalf of our own operations. Despite the difficult
markets, we recorded an operating profit of £11 million (2001:
£12 million).
Awards won in 2002 included best insurance asset manager for
the third time in four years from monthly financial magazine Mieux
Vivre Votre Argent, and best performance awards over one and
three years from La Tribune/Standard & Poor’s.
Netherlands and Belgium
The Delta Lloyd group is among the leading fund managers in
the Netherlands, with assets under management of £27 billion
(2001: £29 billion).
We offer our clients a broad spread of investment products:
Delta Lloyd focuses on lower-risk stock selection to provide less
volatile returns, while OHRA adopts a themed approach to industry
sectors considered to offer the best long-term growth potential.
Investment sales rose to £119 million (2001: £85 million), partly
owing to the introduction of products with a fixed return to offset
the unpredictable markets.
Our Belgian operation Nagelmackers was voted Belgium’s best
fund manager for the second successive year by Belgium’s leading
financial daily, de Financieel-Economische Tijd.
Ireland
Hibernian is Ireland’s fourth-largest fund manager, with £5.9 billion
of assets under management and a market share of nearly 10%.
During the year, in association with Morley, we launched Ireland’s
first SRI funds.
Australia
Portfolio Partners, which manages £3.3 billion of assets for retail
and institutional investors through a range of unit trusts and
individual mandates, reported new sales of £267 million (2001:
£347 million). Navigator, our online investment portfolio service,
is among the top five master trusts in Australia, with £2.8 billion
in funds under administration (2001: £2.8 billion). New sales,
affected by consumer caution in the light of poor stock market
performance, were £797 million (2001: £930 million).
Singapore
We launched Navigator Asia in Singapore in October 2002 and
plan to roll out our online Navigator platform more widely across
the region starting in 2003. We are pleased with our selection as
the first investment administrator to be given access to Singapore’s
£20 billion Central Provident Fund Investment Scheme. This means
we can provide our services to a comprehensive social security
savings scheme with a pool of three million investors.
Worldwide assets under management £billion
1998 185
1999 208
2000 220*
2001 209*
2002 208
*Restated for the effect of Financial Reporting Standard 19 “Deferred Tax”.