Aviva, former owner of CGU and NZI, has recorded an 11% jump in profit over 2002 to post a net operating profit of $4.6 billion. The largest insurer in the UK market, Aviva’s general insurance operations returned a combined ratio of exactly 100%.

While there’s still room for improvement, analysts are generally positive about profitability returning to the UK market after a horror run of several years, mainly caused by the collapse of global equity markets. It was the losses of the past few years that prompted Aviva and Royal & Sun Alliance to sell their profitable Australian and NZ interests.