LONDON, Oct 6 Reuters Shares in Aviva shot up almost 9 on Friday, after Britain39;s Times newspaper cited talk of a possible takeover of one of the UK39;s largest insurers by a foreign buyer.

Aviva declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.

By 0752 GMT, shares in the company were up 8.5 at 421 pence, heading for their biggest daily rise since August 2022, giving it a market value of around 11 billion pounds. 13.41 billion

The Times cited chatter that refused to die down.

Last month, Aviva said it had agreed to buy UK life insurance business of AIG for 460 million pounds 563 million, in the largest acquisition to date by its CEO, Amanda Blanc.

1 0.8201 pounds

Reporting by Joice Alves and Carolyn Cohn; Writing by Amanda Cooper; Editing by Dhara Ranasinghe

Source Reuters