Aviva chief executive Andrew Moss has admitted RAC didn't live up to its ambitions.
Moss was finance director when Aviva paid £1.1bn for the roadside pick-up and financial services firm in 2005. Patrick Snowball was UK chief executive at the time.
The bold ambition for the business was to cross-sell home insurance to RAC customers.
“That proved more difficult than we’d hoped at the time,” Moss admitted.
“In its very essence it is a motoring brand. The cross-selling was not as effective as hoped.”
Moss also said the financial crisis distracted Aviva from RAC and they were not able to give it as much attention as they would have liked.
Analysts agree that Aviva got a good price for RAC following the £1bn sale to private equity firm Carlyle earlier this summer. Carlyle is since reported to be looking to sell a stake in the firm for £200m.
