Delta Lloyd's EUR1.2 Billion IPO Book Fully Covered - Source
28 October 2009 - 1:56AM
Dow Jones News
Order books for Dutch financial services company Delta Lloyd
NV's roughly EUR1.2 billion initial public offering were covered as
of Friday, a person familiar with the matter said Tuesday, and
pricing will be announced late Monday or early Tuesday morning.
Delta Lloyd's 92% owner, U.K. insurer Aviva PLC (AV.LN), is
offering institutional and retail investors 42% of Delta Lloyd, or
around 63.5 million ordinary shares at EUR15.50 to EUR19 each, in
what will be Europe's largest IPO so far this year.
The EUR1.2 billion figure would represent shares being sold at
the higher price. An additional overallotment of 6.5 million shares
could bring the total to EUR1.32 billion.
A Delta Lloyd spokeswoman in Amsterdam wouldn't confirm the
details of the coverage, saying only that "things are going very
well, but the books remain open until Nov. 2.” A representative for
Aviva wasn't immediately available to comment.
The shares are expected to start trading in Amsterdam on the
Euronext exchange Nov. 3. Banks handling the deal are Bank of
America/Merrill Lynch (BAC), Goldman Sachs (GS), JPMorgan (JPM),
Morgan Stanley (MS) and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).
The book being fully covered means demand has met or exceeded
the number of shares being offered. The person familiar with the
matter said it was too soon to know where the pricing would be
come, but that "the deal has a good tone to it."
Analysts previously said that Delta Lloyd appeared to be "priced
to go," since it came at a discount to their calculations of what
the business was worth.
Aviva earlier this month confirmed it was floating Delta Lloyd -
the only major Dutch insurer that didn't need a government bailout
in the financial crisis - in order to free up capital for possible
acquisitions or otherwise take advantage of growth opportunities.
Aviva will keep 57% of Delta Lloyd shares and 53% of voting
rights.
Aviva Chief Executive Andrew Moss said last week that some of
the proceeds from the share sale could be used to help expand the
insurer's U.S. life-insurance operations.
Company Web site: http://www.aviva.com
-By Margot Patrick, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 (0)20 7842 9451;
margot.patrick@dowjones.com
(Bart Koster contributed to this article.)