Aviva 2002 Annual Report Download - page 33

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19 Aviva plc
Annual report + accounts 2002
Netherlands
In the Netherlands, where Delta Lloyd is a top-five general insurer,
we primarily target small to medium commercial insurance sold
through intermediaries. We also operate a direct channel under the
OHRA brand aimed at individuals, and our new bancassurance
agreement with ABN AMRO will offer further opportunities in
2003 to cross-sell general insurance products.
Our emphasis is on careful underwriting and we have withdrawn
from unprofitable classes of business. We also introduced an
affordable and very successful private motor policy in May 2002.
Nevertheless our result suffered following storms in October, the
worst for 16 years, and spending on a new shared service centre.
This initiative is expected to provide efficiency and customer service
benefits and is targeted to launch by the end of 2003. As a result
we achieved an operating profit of £13 million (2001: £19 million)
on net premiums written of £412 million (2001: £387 million).
Healthcare insurance provides over half our premium income,
and we aim to become the best online health insurer in the
Netherlands. In an effort to improve our service for customers,
we are the only Dutch insurer to limit the wait for all hospital
operations to a maximum of two weeks.
A new initiative aimed at the self-employed and small
to medium-sized businesses is our sick leave policy, which
provides income protection during the first year of illness.
Our complementary sick leave management programme helps
employees return to work as soon as they are able.
Other Europe
In July we sold our Spanish general insurance business and the
brand name Plus Ultra for £152 million. We also agreed the sale of
a number of other small general insurance businesses in Portugal,
Switzerland, Greece and Malta. These operations did not offer the
potential for market-leading positions or superior returns.
Canada
CGU Canada (which rebrands to Aviva later in 2003) has been
insuring Canadians since 1906. It is our second-largest general
insurance operation by premium income. Through a network of
independent insurance brokers, we provide a broad range of
traditional products and services. In addition, we underwrite a
number of specialist products.
Creating better processes, pricing strategies and customer service
are the three main pillars of our general insurance strategy in
Canada. We aim to have a strong position in each of our regional
markets and are committed to profitable growth.
We have begun an Intelligent Underwriting programme, which
combines systems technology and working more closely with
brokers at the point of sale. This is already producing benefits by
helping us to identify acceptable risks within the small to medium-
sized business market.
In addition, we have devoted significant effort to improving
customer service through more efficient resolution of claims, and
are introducing the Total Incident Management concept developed
by Norwich Union in the UK. Another important initiative is our
broker portal, which provides personal lines policy information to
brokers via the internet.
Net premiums written rose to £1,009 million (2001: £878 million),
together with an operating profit of £80 million (2001: £72 million).
Asia
Our Asian general insurance operations continued to perform
strongly. We were voted best overall insurer for the third successive
time in the Singapore International Insurance Brokers’ Awards.
Australia and New Zealand
In October 2002 we agreed to sell our general insurance
businesses in Australia and New Zealand for £651 million.
The price was equivalent to 6% of our market capitalisation;
by contrast, these operations accounted for just 2% of our group
premiums and profit. The results of these businesses are shown
as discontinued operations.
General insurance net written premiums £million
1998 6,782
1999 7,699
2000 8,356
2001 7,850
2002 7,805
10,623
11,227
12,203
9,536
8,497
Continuing operations
Discontinued operations
Health premiums £million
1998 277
1999 402
2000 687
2001 841
2002 928