LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Aviva chief executive Mark Wilson stepped down on Tuesday in a surprise departure as the company said it was time for "new leadership.




Wilson, recruited from AIA in 2013 to fix the insurer's balance sheet after the 2008 financial crisis, will stay on until April 2019 but executive duties will be carried in the interim by chairman Sir Adrian Montague.

Both the company and Wilson said he had completed the insurer's turnaround and it was "time for new leadership to take the group to the next phase of its development".

Wilson presided over the preference share debacle earlier in the year which resulted in a £14m payout to shareholders who had lost money by selling them at a heavy discount when Aviva said it would cancel them and then changed its mind.

He also raised eyebrows by joining the board of fund manager BlackRock.

"When I joined Aviva the company was in poor health. Aviva is very different today. I have achieved what I wanted to achieve and it is now time for me to move on to new things," Wilson said.

Aviva said it hoped to find a successor within the next four months. The company stressed that it continued to perform well and was on track to deliver its target of operating earnings per share growth of greater than 5% in 2018 and a dividend payout ratio of 55-60% of operating earnings per share by 2020.

"The board would like to thank Mark for what he has achieved in his six years at Aviva. He leaves the group in a far stronger state than when he joined. Aviva is now financially strong and delivering solid earnings growth," Montague said.

"There is much further to go in accelerating our strategic development and enhancing shareholder value. We have agreed with Mark this is the right time for a new leader to ensure Aviva delivers to its full potential."

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