Delta Lloyd drops out of private equity

Ellie Pullen
03 May 2013

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Delta Lloyd has disposed of the private equity management arm of its investment division, Cyrte Investments BV, and will reportedly no longer deal in the private equity sector in the wake of the Solvency II directive.

Cyrte is to be split into two separate companies, the firm has announced, one of which will still operate under the name Cyrte Investments BV and will continue to focus on publicly traded companies. Delta Lloyd will acquire the 15% stake in Cyrte currently owned by F.J. Botman Holding BV for an undisclosed sum. The Dutch insurer will therefore become sole shareholder of the investment company and full owner of its current public equity funds.

The second company to come out of Cyrte's split will be Dasym Investment Strategies BV, which will manage private equity funds. Delta will not acquire a stake in Dasym, and former Cyrte shareholder F.J. Botman will wholly own the company.

The break up is understood to have been sparked by the upcoming Solvency II regulation. Insurers will be forced by the regime to reserve between 40-59% of capital depending on the risk attached to their assets, causing private equity investments to become significantly more expensive for this type of institutional investor.

Cyrte's (pre-split) portfolio includes entertainment programme producer Endemol, which was acquired by Cyrte and a consortium of investors in 2007 for €2.6bn, and online auction platform Emesa, which Cyrte bought from Oakley Capital in January this year for €95m.