British insurer Aviva posted an 18 per cent rise in nine-month life and pensions sales today amid strong growth in Britain and Italy.
Aviva - which owns Ireland's Hibernian Life and Pensions - said international business saw total sales rise 11 per cent to £12.254 billion in the nine months, thanks to a 13 per cent rise in Italy and a 79 per cent jump in Irish sales after a distribution agreement with bank AIB.
It said pensions new business climbed to £19.13 billion - just below an average forecast of £19.30 billion.
In the same period a year ago, life and pensions sales totalled £16.26 billion.
Aviva said the profit contribution from sales over the period rose 16 per cent to £666 million, within forecasts, although slightly shy of an average forecast of £672 million. Its profit margin was flat at 3.5 per cent.
Aviva, which is due to update the market on British business later today, said total sales there rose 39 per cent to £10.464 billion - already ahead of sales for all of 2005.
It said individual and group pension sales, up 71 per cent and 16 per cent respectively, benefited from an April reform of the pension system allowing people to save more for retirement.