Shake-up at Aviva under Amanda Blanc continuing as it announces sale of its Vietnam business
The shake-up at Aviva under chief executive Amanda Blanc is continuing at a rate of knots, as it announced the sale of its Vietnam business.
The deal comes weeks after the insurer completed the sales of its Hong Kong and Singapore ventures, and revealed it was selling its Aviva Vita business in Italy.
Dealmaker: Aviva boss Amanda Blanc and the Ho Chi Minh City skyline
The London-based group will sell the Aviva Vietnam Life Insurance Company to Canadian insurer Manulife. It will make roughly £100m in return for the Vietnam business. Since Blanc took over in July, she has been trying to boost Aviva’s performance by slimming down its sprawling operations and focusing on the UK.
Her Canadian predecessor Maurice Tulloch, who left after just 16 months in the job due to a family illness, had also announced a review of the firm’s Asia businesses.
But Blanc, a Welsh rugby fanatic and Aviva’s first ever female boss, has distinguished herself by the rapid pace at which she has set about implementing change.
While Tulloch had only announced the sale of the Hong Kong arm, leading to impatience among Aviva’s investor base who thought his plans weren’t radical enough, Blanc has already sold businesses in Italy, Vietnam and Singapore, and completed the Hong Kong deal.
When she took over, Blanc said: ‘I’m not a business-as-usual person, and I haven’t come here to do a business-as-usual job.’