A bid for Aviva? For about the first 20 years of the existence of this insurance mashup – a three-way merger at the turn of the century, constructed around the old Norwich Union – its shareholders would have jumped at a chance to be put of their misery.
Few FTSE 100 managements disappointed their investors so often, or paid themselves such obviously absurd bonuses. Aviva was eclipsed at every turn by the crisis-free progress of its rivals Legal & General and Prudential.
