Aviva Plc, the loser in a bad year for United Kingdom insurance stocks, is the forecasters’ favorite to make money this year, Bloomberg reported.

Aviva, parent of Des Moines-based Aviva USA and Britain’s largest insurer by sales, fell 18 percent in 2007 trading, almost twice as much as the FTSE All-Share Life Insurance Index. The London-based company, with roots going back three centuries, did worse compared with Prudential Plc, which has overtaken Aviva as the U.K.’s biggest insurer by market value. Prudential rose 1.8 percent in London trading last year on its growth prospects in Asia.

The tables are turning this year, as analysts favor companies that won’t be ruined by asset write-downs or an economic slump. Eight out of 10 say “buy” Aviva, and none say “sell,” according to ratings compiled by Bloomberg. Analysts, on average, predict a 40 percent increase in Aviva this year.

Aviva CEO Andrew Moss told investors on Feb. 6 that he’s sticking to earlier growth and profit forecasts for 2008, even as “recessionary pressure’ increases in the United States and Britain.

The chief challenge facing Aviva is the slow-growing insurance market in the United Kingdom. Legal & General Group Plc, Britain’s No. 3 insurer, said the deteriorating real estate market will hurt sales of mortgage-related insurance products, while proposed changes to capital gains tax have reduced sales of some investment products.