ING To Sell Life Korea; Deal To Result In After-tax Loss Of Approx. EUR 950 Mln

(RTTNews) - ING Group (ING) announced an agreement to sell its wholly owned life insurance business, ING Life Korea, to MBK Partners for approximately 1.24 billion euros, at current exchange rates. The transaction is expected to result in an after-tax loss for ING Group of approximately 950 million euros, to be booked in the third quarter of 2013.

ING Life Korea is South Korea's largest foreign life insurer, with about 1.3 million customers, more than 1,000 employees and approximately 6,800 tied agents. MBK Partners is the largest private equity firm in Korea.

ING will hold an indirect stake of approximately 10% in ING Life Korea for an amount of 80 million euros, at current exchange rates. ING has also reached a licensing agreement that will allow ING Life Korea to continue to operate under the ING brand for a maximum period of five years.

Jan Hommen, CEO of ING Group, said, "This transaction is a major step in the divestment of our Asian insurance and investment management activities. Together with the scheduled payment of the next tranche of the core Tier 1 securities to the Dutch State in November 2013, this will bring us further into the end phase of the restructuring of our company."