Aviva faces a series of awkward questions at its AGM today over poorly provisioned French contracts potentially worth billions

Max Herve George, the French life assurance contract holder who wants Aviva to honour the Cours Connu or ’known price arbitrage contract’ he holds will be attending the Aviva AGM toay to ask the company again how many other similar contracts still exist.

The French media are highlighting the possible value of Max Herve George’s contract alone could be as much as €1bn by 2020 and that many savers in L’AFER, the Aviva managed fund are increasingly nervous. Aviva has so far refused to acknowledge the level of the provisions it has made in its 2014 accounts of Aviva Group for the Cours Connu despite a series of court losses in 2014 and 2015.

At the Aviva AGM today Max Herve George will seek to discover whether Aviva even knows how many individual Known Price Arbitrage contracts it is still on the hook for in France.

Max will be accompanied by Nicolas Lecoq-Vallon, the Paris avocat, who is due to ask how much longer Aviva thinks it can ignore the findings of France’s highest court which in September ruled that Aviva must recognise all the terms of the contract. He will go on to ask whether the company is aware the damage this is doing to its standing among the savers, or epargnants, in the €80bn L’AFER contract which is run by Aviva.

A spokesman for Max Herve George said: "Aviva cannot continue refusing to be more open about the size of the problem it faces with these contracts nor stick its head in the sand and ignore a ruling by France’s Supreme Court enforcing his contract. The company may not like being asked these questions in public or at their AGM, but it has only itself to blame for its customers in France being worried about the potential impact of these contracts on their savings."