Aviva studying possible sale of Irish health insurance unit, report says

Aviva has hired bankers to explore the possible sale of its Irish health insurance operations, Sky News reported.

The broadcaster said it understood that Macquarie had been appointed to undertake the strategic review.

An agreement to sell the unit, which had 300,000 customers and handled roughly £300m of gross premiums, would be likely to reach a value of tens of millions of pounds, Sky said.

It was not guaranteed that the review would result in a sale but it was considered "the most likely outcome".

The FTSE 100-listed company’s life and general insurance operations in the neighbouring country were not included in the review and were to be retained as a part of Aviva.

As of 16:01 shares in Aviva were down 0.96% to 486.6p.