Aviva hopes to create ‘standout specialty market’ in 2025 using Probitas purchase

Insurer Aviva wants to establish a “standout specialty market” in 2025, centred around its purchase of insurance platform and Lloyd’s syndicate Probitas, according to Jason Storah, the insurer’s chief executive of UK general insurance (UKGI).

Aviva first announced its intention to buy Probitas back in March 2024 – the £249m deal subsequently completed in July last year to cement Aviva’s presence in the Lloyd’s market.

Following immediate completion of the transaction, Aviva primarily focused on setting up a “dual stamp capability”, Storah noted, to increase the insurer’s line sizes, improve its ability to underwrite international accounts and offer its policyholders a choice of paper – whether risks are written on Lloyd’s or Aviva paper, or a combination of the two.

Lloyd’s stamp capacity refers to the maximum amount of business a syndicate is authorised to write in a given year. A dual stamp approach, therefore, enables two parties to come together and match their capacity on a per risk basis.

Speaking to Insurance Times following the publication of Aviva’s 2024 full-year financial results on 27 February 2025, Storah said: “We always said this year was about bringing the teams together from an integration perspective.

“We focused on getting the dual stamp capability in place for the end of last year and now it’s just about the teams increasingly working together as much as possible. That’s the emphasis for this year because we want to create a standout specialty market going forward.”

‘Great growth opportunities’

For Storah, bringing together the Aviva and Probitas manpower means pairing the “strength and breadth of broker relationships that Aviva has and some of the expertise that Probitas has, combined with the expertise [evident in Aviva’s Global Corporate and Specialty division]”.

By “bringing those two businesses together”, Storah explained that the combined company is now “writing accounts that neither Aviva nor Probitas on their own would have written prior to [the] deal”.

This includes, for example, a large new construction account in Asia.

The “key thing” underlining this client expansion is “access to Lloyd’s paper” and making more products available via Probitas, Storah continued.

Putting this plan into practice, Aviva launched five new product classes in Lloyd’s through Probitas back in November 2024, including marine – incorporating cargo, fine art, specie, ports and terminals – construction, renewable energy, contingency and event cancellation, as well as M&A.

Then, in February 2025, Aviva added another two new product lines to Probitas’ stable, offering political violence and terrorism and accident and health.

Storah said: “Those are lines that Aviva has experience in, but to launch them in the Probitas world with Lloyd’s paper now means that we have great growth opportunities ahead”.

‘Upside’ for everyone

Probitas is not Aviva’s only acquisition last year that attracted market-wide attention.

In December 2024, the insurer confirmed that it would be buying Direct Line Group (DLG) for £3.7bn. Storah told Insurance Times that Aviva was currently working on closing this deal and finessing the small print, as well as focusing on getting regulatory approval for the purchase.

He predicted that the deal would complete by 2025’s third quarter.

“Personally, what [the team and I] are really looking forward to is welcoming all of the DLG team into the Aviva world, bringing these businesses together and having a broader suite of brands to face into the market from a trading perspective,” he said.

“We think there’s lots of upside there for everybody.”