Aviva silent on talk of Eric Daniels as chairman

Insurance giant Aviva yesterday stonewalled reports that recently-departed Lloyds Banking Group chief executive Eric Daniels had been shortlisted to become its next chairman.

The speculation was met with little opposition in the City with one of its institutional investors said it was "relaxed" at the prospect. An Aviva spokesman declined to comment when asked if Daniels is one of five candidates to replace Colin Sharman as group chairman in September.

But Paul Mumford, senior fund manager at Cavendish Asset Management, one of Aviva's institutional shareholders, said Daniels's mixed performance at Lloyds Banking Group, including the stormy acquisition of HBOS, was unlikely to be a concern.

Mumford said: "Lloyds has an important insurance subsidiary in Scottish Widows, so you could hardly say Daniels would be a complete novice coming into an insurance business.

"And while institutions would not want to see any HBOS-type merger, that's unlikely to happen."