6th Mar 2020 07:59
(Alliance News) - Aviva PLC on Friday said it has agreed to exit its Indonesia business by selling its entire stake in the joint venture to its partner PT Astra International Tbk.
The FTSE 100-listed insurer did not disclose any financial details about the transaction.
Aviva said the sale of PT Astra Aviva Life will be completed in the fourth quarter of 2020, and will be subject to regulatory approval in Indonesia.
Aviva also noted the deal is conditional on Bangkok Bank Public Co Ltd's acquisition of PT Bank Permata Tbk from Standard Chartered PLC, which was approved by Bangkok Bank shareholders on Thursday.
Bank Permata is Aviva's bancassurance partner in the country.
Standard Chartered and Indonesia's PT Astra International jointly control Permata, each holding just under a 45% stake, giving them a combined holding of just over 89%.
Back in November, when Aviva unveiled its new "simplification" strategy, the insurer noted it was in discussions to sell its Indonesian and Vietnamese businesses.
On Thursday, Aviva reported the fruits of that new strategy, posting statutory pretax profit of GBP3.93 billion for 2019, more than double the GBP1.65 billion reported in 2018. This was helped by a GBP40.58 billion investment income, after a GBP10.91 billion loss in 2018.
Taking into account a change to accounting standards, Aviva's pretax profit rose 58% to GBP3.37 billion.
Operating profit, the company's preferred metric, for the year was 6.0% higher at a record GBP3.18 billion from GBP3.00 billion in 2018, beating market consensus of GBP3.10 billion.
By Paul McGowan; [email protected]
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