British insurer Aviva to sell Italian joint venture to Banco BPM

(Reuters) - British insurer Aviva said it would sell its 50 percent stake in its joint venture in Italy, Avipop Assicurazioni and its unit Avipop Vita to Italy's Banco BPM.

The joint venture, which distributes life and general insurance products in Italy, is owned by Aviva and Banco BPM.

Aviva's decision to sell the stake came after it received a notification in June of Banco BPM's intention not to renew its bancassurance agreement with the insurer, it said in a statement.

In 2016, the two businesses contributed 200 million pounds ($256.00 million) to Aviva's IFRS net assets and generated about 14 million pounds in IFRS operating pretax profit.

Aviva's other joint ventures in Italy with UBI, UniCredit, and its units Aviva Life and Aviva Italia are unaffected, it said.

Aviva has previously said it was considering the future of its businesses in Spain, Italy and India.

The insurer did not disclose a price for the sale.

($1 = 0.7813 pounds)

(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru)