LONDON (Reuters) -Shares in Aviva shot up almost 9% on Friday, after Britain’s Times newspaper cited talk of a possible takeover of one of the UK’s largest insurers by a foreign buyer.
Aviva declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.
By 0752 GMT, shares in the company were up 8.5% at 421 pence, heading for their biggest daily rise since August 2022, giving it a market value of around 11 billion pounds. ($13.41 billion)
The Times cited “chatter that refused to die down”.
Last month, Aviva said it had agreed to buy UK life insurance business of AIG for 460 million pounds($563 million), in the largest acquisition to date by its CEO, Amanda Blanc.
($1 = 0.8201 pounds)
(Reporting by Joice Alves and Carolyn Cohn; Writing by Amanda Cooper; Editing by Dhara Ranasinghe)
