Aviva raises share buyback to £1bn

Aviva has increased its share buyback programme to as much as £1bn and extended the time period for the repurchases to be made.

The FTSE 100 insurer announced a £750m buyback in August due to end on 17 February to return cash from disposals to shareholders. It has extended the deadline to 31 March and increased the maximum number of shares to 392 million from 300 million.

Aviva left unchanged its overall target for returning at least £4bn to investors by the end of the first half of 2022. At 15 December it had bought back 158 million shares for £635m.

Amanda Blanc, Aviva's chief executive, said: "We are increasing our share buyback to £1bn as part of our commitment to return at least £4bn to ordinary shareholders. We will update further on our capital return and dividend plans at our full year results in March 2022."