ING Q4 Profit Falls 64%

(RTTNews) - Dutch financial firm ING Group N.V. (ING) Wednesday reported 63.6 percent fall in fourth-quarter profit, reflecting mainly gain on sale in the prior year. Meanwhile, the Group's underlying profit before tax surged from last year, driven by a solid performance at ING Bank.

Underlying result before tax was 467 million euros, up from 275 million euros in the year-ago quarter, mainly due to ING Bank, the result of which climbed to 904 million euros from 283 million euros in 2012.

Underlying net result, ING Group, significantly increased to 405 million euros from 163 million euros in the prior year quarter.

For the fourth quarter, ING's net result fell to 539 million euros (about $735 million) from 1.48 billion euros in the same quarter last year.

On a per share basis, earnings were 0.14 euros, down from 0.39 euros in the prior year. The company said it has restated its prior-year results.

The prior-year quarter had 1.61 billion euros gain on sale of its Canadian online bank, as well as Malasian Insurance operations.

Further, the fourth-quarter 2013 net result from discontinued operations of Insurance ING U.S., declined to 179 million euros from 301 million euros a year ago, mainly due to reduction of ING Group's stake in ING U.S. to 57 percent.

Quarterly total underlying income grew to 6.25 billion euros from last year's 5.19 billion euros.

Expenses were flat with last year, but was up 10.9 percent sequentially due to Dutch bank tax and additional restructuring charges in the Netherlands.

Commenting on full-year 2013 results, Ralph Hamers, CEO of ING Group stated, "We reported a full-year underlying net profit of EUR 3,255 million, up 22.2% from 2012. The improvement was driven by a solid performance at ING Bank, which recorded a 21.6% increase in underlying pre-tax results, as well as an improved operating result for the ongoing business at ING Insurance which rose 6.4% from 2012."

Bank core Tier 1 ratio at the end of 2013 was 11.7 percent, compared to 11.9 percent last year.

In Amsterdam, the shares are currently trading at 10.60 euros, up 4.28 percent, on a volume of 13.61 million shares.