Aviva, Britain’s second-biggest insurer, said on Monday it expects to complete the planned stock market flotation of its Dutch unit, Delta Lloyd, in November.
Aviva, which announced its intention to float the business in August, plans to sell a minority of its 92 percent stake in Delta Lloyd on Euronext’s Amsterdam exchange next month, it said in a statement.
Delta Lloyd Chief Executive Niek Hoek told Reuters last month that the IPO was pencilled in for the final quarter of 2009 or early next year.
Aviva said the IPO proceeds would allow it to restructure its balance sheet or explore other unspecified “opportunities for growth.”
Aviva Chief Executive Andrew Moss said in August that Aviva was on the lookout for takeovers, and that Delta Lloyd might also make acquisitions as the Benelux financial services sector undergoes a wave of consolidation.
Delta Lloyd confirmed on Monday that the IPO will “provide the opportunity to consider consolidation options which the Delta Lloyd Group foresees in the Netherlands and Belgium.”
Sources familiar with Aviva’s IPO plans said in August that the company expects to raise about 1 billion euros ($1.45 billion) from the sale of a 25 percent stake in Delta Lloyd, suggesting a 4 billion euro valuation for the business as a whole.
Delta Lloyd had an embedded value — a measure of insurance companies’ worth which includes the present value of future earnings from long-term life insurance contracts — of 4.1 billion euros at the end of June, Aviva said on Monday.
Aviva shares were down 0.6 percent at 449.7 pence by 0712 GMT, while the FTSE 100 share index was off 0.2 percent.
