ING could sell Romanian insurance division

ING Asigurari de Viata could be sold, as part of ING Groep NV's plans to separate its insurance and banking businesses, but a decision regarding the amount or moment of sale has not yet been made, officials of the Dutch group told Business Standard.

"We decided to separate the insurance business from the other activities and to sell this, and the Romanian operations are part of this plan. We could opt for selling the Romanian division or we could resort to an initial public offering, but a definite decision has not yet been made," according to a declaration by Raymond Vermeulen, spokesman for the Dutch group, for Business Standard.

Herbert Fromme, insurance market analyst and correspondent for Financial Times, said that ING's decision to sell the insurance business comes after the European Commission (EC) requested that the Dutch group reimburse the €10 million in state aid received last fall.

"Over the past two months, we have been working, both at the group level and with the Dutch government and the European Commission, to develop a plan which will allow us to repay the aid received from the government, so that we do not breach EC rules regarding competition, and focus once again on our businesses," Jan Hommen, Chairman of the ING Group Executive Board, said.

"The group decided to completely separate the insurance activity from banking. How the insurance business will be outsourced has not yet been determined, but this will happen in the coming four years. The reason why the ING group is outsourcing the insurance activity is that it wants to reform and focus on the banking business," Misu Negritoiu, who runs ING's operations in Romania, told Business Standard.

Cornelia Coman, General Manager of ING Asigurari de Viata and Chairman of the Board of ING Fond de Pensii, said that separating the banking operations from the insurance sector will not have a negative impact on the products or services offered to Romanian clients or employees. "This decision will provide more solidarity, simplicity, and transparency to the company's insurance operations," Coman added.

The ING group will forego all insurance and investment management operations, through initial public offerings and/or sale. The separation process, which will include several stages, is scheduled to be finalized in 2013.

"ING is a very strong company in Romania, both in the field of life insurance and in the private pension area, segments which control over one third of the total. Also, the values of the liquidity and solvency indicators of the two companies - insurance and private pensions - are above the compulsory levels," Coman added.

standard.money.ro