Aviva will consider bidding for some of the €22 billion (£20 billion) in assets being auctioned by ING, the Dutch bank, Andrew Moss, the chief executive of the world’s fifth-largest insurer, said yesterday.

Aviva, which is poised to bank more than €1 billion from floating a minority stake in Delta Lloyd, its Dutch subsidiary, could use the unit to buy local assets, he said.

Aviva would bid independently for any of ING’s overseas operations. The bank owns ING Direct, the mortgage, savings and home insurance provider, in the UK. “When a competitor’s assets come on to the market, we would look at them as a matter of routine,” Mr Moss said.

ING, which received €10 billion in emergency capital from the Dutch Government last year, surprised the markets last week when it revealed plans to sell, float or spin off its insurance and investment management assets in stages by 2013.

After first raising the prospect of acquisitions in August, Mr Moss said that Aviva remained interested in using some of the proceeds of the Delta Lloyd float for that purpose. The capital could also be used to buy market share or redeem some of its costlier debt. “The three potential options are still as valid as they were then.”

At the same time, Mr Moss made clear that Aviva would defend its position as the UK’s market leader in the face of an acquisitions drive by Resolution, Clive Cowdery’s life and asset management vehicle, which today will complete its takeover of Friends Provident. “If any of the activity taking place affects our competitive position, we would have to think very carefully about how we react,” he said.

Mr Moss’s bullish comments came as Aviva reported an 11 per cent fall in worldwide life and pensions sales to £24.06 billion for the nine months to September 30, short of analysts’ expectations.

An emphasis in Britain on higher-margin, more profitable business led to a 25 per cent slide in life and pensions sales to £6.66 billion over the period. Sales in North America and continental Europe also slipped.

Mr Moss said that the economic downturn had affected customers’ “keenness and ability to save”, but the insurer’s drive for higher margins meant that sales were more profitable.

Despite the sales fall, Aviva shares rallied strongly, closing 19.9p up, 5.25 per cent, at 399.2p, after it cheered analysts by increasing its solvency cushion by £500 million to £3.7 billion over the past three months. Aviva’s reserves against souring investments are 1½ times the statutory minimum and will increase by a further £400 million once the sale of its Australian operations is complete.

Greig Paterson and Steven Haywood at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, the broker, forecast a 20 to 30 per cent rise in Aviva’s dividend “over the next few years”.

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