New Aviva head wants to drive company into the black

Mihai Popescu, the new CEO of Aviva life insurance company, who took over the position yesterday, states that one of his targets is to turn the company around after the insurer has operated in the red since it entered the market, in 2000. In 2009, Aviva Asigurari, a subsidiary of Britain's Aviva group, posted losses of 13.4m RON (3.2m euros), from 21.3m RON (5.8m euros) in the previous year, with the decline amounting to 37%. "A company's losses are sometimes an indication of operated investments and this is also the case of Aviva. Turning profitable is one of the objectives of my term. We will keep a tight lid on costs and we'll be very careful about all the investments we carry out," stated Mihai Popescu, 39, a former marketing manager of Alico Asigurari. Popescu is the first Romanian head of the British insurer, after the company was run by expats Carl Boehr and Shah Rouf. Aviva Asigurari ranks 4th on the life insurance market, with gross underwritten premiums worth 101m RON (24m euros) in 2009, down 5% from 2008. "Our 2010 budget stipulates rising gross underwritten premiums," states Popescu.