Aviva nets £353m from Delta Lloyd stake sale

Insurer Aviva has strengthened its balance sheet by selling its 34 million share stake in Dutch insurer Delta Lloyd via a private placing.

The sale, which took place yesterday, comes as part of the insurer's strategy to narrow its focus, Aviva said. The group first began offloading its interest in Delta Lloyd in 2009, and raised $494m via a sale of 37m shares last July. Yesterday's sale represented its entire remaining stake. The placement of the 34,288,795 Delta Lloyd shares owned by Aviva was "several times oversubscribed", the group said, and placed at a 1.6% discount to Delta Lloyd's Tuesday closing price. "This sale will be a good start to 2013 and supports our strategy to narrow focus and make Aviva a more nimbl...