By Sabela Ojea 



  Aviva PLC reported Thursday a fall in net profit for the first six months of the year and said it had general insurance claims related to the coronavirus pandemic of 165 million pounds ($216.4 million.) 


  "Claims are primarily as a result of disruption to business and travel insured by the group, partially offset by a reduction in the frequency of motor claims," the company said. 


  The FTSE-100 insurer posted a net profit of GBP821 million compared with GBP1.12 billion for the same period a year earlier. 


  Aviva made a pretax profit of GBP804 million from GBP2.05 billion for the same period a year earlier, it added. 


  The U.K. company had gross written premiums of GBP15.23 billion and a solvency II Capital surplus --a measure of balance-sheet strength--of GBP12.0 billion, equal to a cover ratio of 194% compared with 206%. 


  The board has declared an interim dividend of 6 pence a share. 


  Write to Sabela Ojea at sabela.ojea@wsj.com; @sabelaojeaguix