ING Group has received three offers for its life insurance division in South Korea, estimated at two billion dollars after a previous attempt of the Dutch group to sell the South Korean operations failed.
If this time will be able to sell the South-Korean life insurance unit, ING will be left in Asia with operations in Japan only. ING has until the end of this year to sell its majority stake held at insurance divisions in the region, as part of the agreement with the Dutch government in exchange for financial aid received during the crisis in 2008.
ING, which received offers from Kyobo Life Insurance Co., Vogo Fund and MBK Partners for ING Life Insurance Korea could get at least two billion won ($1.8 billion) if the transaction will be completed, according to sources who wished to remain anonymous. All three companies have offered to acquire over 51% stake in ING Life Insurance Korea, the fifth largest insurer in South Korea.
This month, ING announced plans to list on the stock exchange its insurance operations in Europe by 2014.
ING received in 2008 government aid worth €10 billion and, in order to get the approval of the European Commission, was forced to concede part of its operations and to separate banking sector from the insurance activities. Recently ING has separated from the US division ING U.S. – through an initial public offering of $1.3 billion.
In the first quarter of this year, ING recorded a net profit of 1.804 billion, up from €728 million in the same period of 2012. The group announced that the results achieved by insurance divisions in Europe and Asia remained under pressure due to low yields, as the operating profit of these divisions recorded a drop of 39% to €79 million.
ING Group, the international financial institution of Dutch origin, has more than 60 million individual customers, companies and institutions in 50 countries.
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