Chief executive Lee rules out further bid for Aviva

RSA is looking for small acquisitions outside the UK, group chief executive Simon Lee told Reuters.

Lee, who took the reins of RSA from former chief executive Andy Haste Last November, said the maximum size of the purchases he is seeking would be around the £267m it paid for Canada’s GFCAN Insurance in 2010.

“I feel it’s incumbent on me to fund our growth from our own resources, and that means not going to the equity markets,” he told the news agency in an interview yesterday. “That creates effectively a cap on the size of the acquisition that we would undertake.”

Lee also reiterated that his company will not be making a further bid to buy Aviva. RSA hit the headlines in 2010 after a failed £5bn takeover attempt of its largest UK rival. “We closed our books on it, and I see nothing that makes me think they changed their mind,” Lee told Reuters.

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