Aviva profits surge 24% after Direct Line acquisition

Aviva offers home, car, and life insurance in the UK and serves 25m customers

FTSE 100 insurance group Aviva has announced a 24 per cent rise in operating profit for the first half of this year, bolstered by the group’s “strong progress” following its takeover of Direct Line in 2025.

The London-listed insurer, which provides home, motor, and life insurance across the UK and serves around 25 million customers, revealed its overall operating profit climbed to £1.3bn for the period ended 30 June 2026, up from £1.7bn the previous year, driven by its £3.6bn acquisition of Direct Line in July 2025.

Aviva’s general insurance premiums rose 29 per cent to £8.1bn, with UK and Ireland premiums surging 42 per cent to £5.9bn.

The insurer’s wealth management division also expanded 32 per cent to £7.6bn, underpinned by a new pension scheme and robust sales through its investment platform.

“We are making very good progress with the integration of Direct Line. We have quickly improved Direct Line’s profitability, grown price comparison website sales, and maintained excellent levels of customer service. We are well on track to deliver all the financial benefits of the acquisition,” chief executive Amanda Blanc said, as reported by City AM.

Blanc said the insurer is “confident that we will meet our three-year financial targets in 2028 and expect 75 per cent of our earnings to be capital-light by that point.”

Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, said the results “further cements Aviva’s leading positions particularly in the home and car insurance markets.

“While car insurance has seen a substantial increase in premiums to the exasperation of many consumers, the space has been affected by both higher average new car prices (equating to higher insured valuations) as well as the costly nature of repairing increasingly complex and technologically advanced vehicles,” Hunter said.

The insurance giant is also driving forward with technology adoption as it continues to deploy AI throughout the organisation.

Aviva is utilising its customer base data to train its AI systems, which it described as “major competitive advantages which will drive our future growth.”

The company said it is “already delivering tangible benefits” from implementing AI within its medical underwriting division. Aviva has also recently introduced a generative AI tool to analyse and summarise extensive medical reports and extract pertinent information.

The insurer is additionally planning to introduce an AI virtual assistant later this year, along with the deployment of AI-powered claims agents to assist customers.

Aviva has offices across the UK including in Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield and York.