Insurance arm likely to be sold off in two initial public offerings
ING is gearing up for two initial public offerings of its insurance business, the company revealed in its full-year results yesterday.
The sale will take place next year and will go towards paying off the €10bn (£8.4bn) from the Dutch government during the financial crisis.
ING would probably opt for a Europe-focused listing for its Asian insurance business, while a US initial public offering would have a strong position in retirement services. The Europe flotation would probably include its UK general insurance arm, ING Direct.
The flotation plans were dealt a blow when it was revealed that the insurance arm's losses worsened from €202m in 2009 to €519m last year.
Profits were sharply up at the group’s bank, from €1.36bn in 2009 to €5.86bn last year.
Chief executive Jon van Hommen said yesterday: “The US operations, the franchises that are there, the retirement services and the life business are very good businesses. So we do have a company right now that the experts say we can do an IPO with.”
