ING Prepares U.S. Insurance Business for IPO

Hugh Collins
Updated

Dutch bank ING Groep (ING) is preparing its U.S. insurance business for an IPO.

ING agreed to separate its banking and insurance businesses by the end of 2013 so it could get European Commission approval for a government bailout, Bloomberg News said. The bank is now considering IPOs for both its European and U.S. insurance divisions.

Sponsored Links

"While the option of one IPO remains open, we are going to prepare ourselves for a base case of two IPOs for our insurance businesses: one Europe-led IPO with solid cashflow combined with strong growth positions in developing markets, and one separate U.S.-focused IPO with a leading franchise in retirement services," CEO Jan Hommen said in the statement.

The IPOs could take place as soon as the final quarter of 2011.

The bank's profit for the quarter ending Sept. 30 fell to 371 million euros ($511 million) as its wrote down goodwill at the U.S. insurance unit to prepare the business for an IPO.


Advertisement