FRANKFURT, Aug 3 (Reuters) - British insurer Aviva is mulling the sale of German unit Delta Lloyd as one of several options for the loss-making life insurer, Delta Lloyd's Dutch parent said on Monday.
"We can confirm we are exploring various market opportunities for the German business, but no decision has been made at this stage," a Delta Lloyd NV spokesperson said.
The German unit is pressing ahead with a restructuring programme announced in May, which involves slashing nearly a third of the company's 800-strong workforce, the company said. The Financial Times Deutschland newspaper on Monday quoted an insurance industry source as saying that Aviva was seeking to sell the unit, which booked 436 million euros ($621 million) in gross premiums in 2008.
The sale price was expected to be "very low, probably close to nothing", the paper quoted the source as saying.
If the buyer were to assume guarantees given by Aviva, the sales price even could be negative, the paper quoted a board member of a rival company as saying.
A person familiar with the situation said that private bank Metzler had been mandated to evaluate options for the unit.
The German unit, which is 100 percent owned by Delta Lloyd NV which in turn is part of the Aviva group, posted a loss of 104 million euros in 2008, after a loss of 8 million in 2007. ($1=.7019 Euro) (Reporting by Jonathan Gould and Patricia Uhlig in Frankfurt and Miles Neligan in London; editing by Simon Jessop)