Aviva, Britain’s biggest insurer said yesterday that group sales surged 10.0 per cent to 24.6 billion pounds (35.8 billion euros, 43.0 billion dollars) during 2005, thanks to a strong showing from its international divison.

The figure beat analysts’ consensus forecasts of 22.12 billion pounds for the twelve months to December and compared with 22.3 billion in the previous year.

International sales leapt 16 percent to 14.4 billion pounds.

"Our long-term savings business is flourishing, thanks to our strong international portfolio... demonstrating our ability to develop our existing businesses," said Aviva chief executive Richard Harvey in a statement accompanying the release.

"We are particularly pleased both by the results from France, Italy and the Netherlands, which achieved consistently good performances throughout the year, and by the highly promising performances from our Asian and US businesses."

Aviva Plc. recenetly entered the local insurance market by acquiring a controlling stake in the highly successful local insurance company, Eagle Insurance Limited. With this acquisition Aviva and NDB will be the major share holders of Eagle controlling a total of 78.42 % with effective control of 51% and 27.42% respectively.

Eagle was previously owned to the extent of 87.27% of its shares by NDB Finance Lanka (Pvt) Ltd (NFL). NFL in turn was wholly owned by Capital Development & Investment Co Ltd (CDIC), whose principal owner was NDB Bank Ltd (75.6%)

Under this deal, CDIC sold 58.44% of its shares in NFL to Aviva, thereby reducing its holding in NFL to 41.56%.

Aviva is the world’s oldest insurance group, with a history dating back to 1696. The Group has 60,000 employees serving 30 million customers in over 25 countries with more than Sterling Pounds 290 billion assets under management.

Aviva Plc is the largest insurer in the UK and one of the leading providers of life and pension products to Europe. It is also the sixth largest insurance company in the world. Its many activities include long term insurance, fund management, and general insurance.