Cevian has purchased approximately 195 million Aviva shares to become one of the top three shareholders of the British insurance giant.

Swedish activist investor Cevian now holds a 4.95% stake in British insurer Aviva.

Aviva has been divesting its non-U.K. business. Cevian expects it to continue on that path, and return £5bn to shareholders next year.

Christer Gardell, managing partner at Cevian, was quoted by Bloomberg as saying that Cevian plans to use the stake to aid in cost-cutting and shareholder return.

Gardell told the publication that Aviva’s costs are “moving in the right direction ” but there is more potential to return £500m in cuts by 2023.

Gardell said that Aviva’s share price could rise to £8, which is almost double its value today and four times the low it reached in March 2020.

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The dividend could move to 45 pence, roughly twice its current level, he added.

Cevian, which has $16bn under management, has already purchased stakes in rival insurer RSA and Old Mutual.

Cevian Capital partner Niko Pakalen told Bloomberg, “We’ve followed Aviva closely for nearly a decade, both as a peer of our former core holding, RSA, and as an investment candidate in its own right.”

In March 2021, Aviva decided to sell its remaining businesses in Italy for a combined value of €873m.

Few weeks before this announcement Aviva announced the divestment of its operations in France and Turkey.