by Richard Brown
RBC sells insurance unit to U.K.’s Aviva
The Royal Bank of Canada has sold its home and auto insurance business to Aviva Plc, the U.K.’s second-biggest insurer by market value. Aviva has agreed to pay C$582 million ($402 million) for the insurer as part of its expansion drive in North America.
As a result of the purchase, Aviva’s policy sales in Canada will rise by C$800 million, up from almost C$4 billion in 2014, the buyer said Thursday in a statement. Oher Aviva products will be offered to customers of the Toronto-based bank in 15-year deal as part of the transaction. Some 575 staff from RBC will become part of Aviva.
The acquisition forms part of Aviva CEO Mark Wilson’s turnaround plan for the company, including last year’s purchase of Friends Life Group Ltd. for more than $8 billion, the largest takeover in the U.K. insurance industry in 15 years.
Travelers posts 17 percent slump in Q4 earnings
Travelers Cos. has posted a 17 percent drop in Q4 profit due to dwindling investment income on bond yields and the value of energy-related holdings.
The sole property-casualty insurer in the Dow Jones Industrial Average reported a fall in net income to $866 million, or $2.83 a share, from $1.04 billion, or $3.11, a year earlier.
Operating profit, excluding some investment results, was $2.90 a share, beating the $2.66 average estimate of 26 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Catastrophe costs were $46 million before tax, compared with $41 million a year earlier.
It is the first time Alan Schnitzer has reported earnings since replacing Jay Fishman as CEO last month. The ongoing oil price plummet also added to pressure on Travelers’ numbers, squeezing junk bond holdings and reducing insurance demand from energy clients. The insurer’s stock price has dropped 9.9 percent so far this year.
Liberty lures Cossetti for new post
Diana Cossetti has clinched the SVP role at Liberty International Underwriters (LIU), a division of
Liberty Mutual Insurance.
In a newly-created role based in New York, Cossetti will oversee primary casualty, excess casualty, environmental, railroad and crisis management. She will report to Michael Finnegan, LIU’s Chief Underwriting Office for US. In a career spanning 28 years, Cossetti spent the past 14 years with Crum & Forster.
Lincoln scoops Best Life Insurer title
Lincoln Financial Group has taken
World Finance magazine’s 2015 Best Life Insurance Company in America crown, its second such accolade in three years.
The publication, which covers the financial industry, international business and the global economy, gave any company operating within a particular country the chance to be nominated in either general or life insurance classes. The other two finalists for 2015 Best Life Insurance Company in America included
AIG and Transamerica.
Radnor, Pennsylvania-based Lincoln Financial Group, which last received the
World Finance title in 2013, boasts over 17 million customers and $214 billion in assets under management at September 30, 2015.
Allianz allies with Althoff
Sara Viker Althoff joins Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America as director of Strategy and Business Development. Althoff will manage new market strategy projects and report to Assistant Vice President of Business Strategy and Development, Emily Reitan.
Before being recruited by Allianz Life, Althoff was vice president in the Deposit Product Group at Wells Fargo in Minneapolis. She also held various senior leadership roles with Piper Jaffray/U.S. Bancorp in Minneapolis and AgriBank, FCB in St. Paul, Minneapolis.
