ING completes divestment of Voya shares for total proceeds of USD 2 billion
(Thomson Reuters ONE) -
ING Group today announced the pricing for the sale of 45.6 million shares of
common stock of Voya Financial Inc. that was announced on 3 March 2015. In the
public offering ING Group has sold approximately 32 million Voya shares at a
price of USD 44.20 per share. In addition ING Group has sold to Voya
approximately 13.6 million shares for an aggregate amount of USD 600 million.
This sale completes the divestment of ING's U.S.-based retirement, investment
and insurance business a process that started with the initial public offering
in May 2013 of Voya Financial, Inc. ING Bank will remain active in the US
through its Corporate and Institutional Clients platform which is headquartered
in New York.
"Today's sale of our remaining shares in Voya represents a significant milestone
in the completion of ING's restructuring." said Ralph Hamers, CEO of ING Group.
"This is also the end of an era as it has been 40 years since we first entered
the U.S. life insurance business with the acquisition of a majority stake in
Wisconsin National Life Insurance Company." Mr Hamers added: "Since bringing
Voya to the stock exchange in 2013 we have solidified our repositioning as a
leading European bank while Voya has made a great start as a standalone company.
We wish our former colleagues at Voya every success in the future."
The gross proceeds to ING Group from the public offering and the concurrent
repurchase by Voya amount to approximately USD 2.0 billion (approximately EUR
1.8 billion at current exchange rates). The sale of the total of 45.6 million
shares from the combined transactions reduces ING Group's stake in Voya from
18.9% to zero. The transactions are expected to settle on 9 March 2015. After
this transaction, ING Group will continue to hold warrants for approximately 26
million shares in Voya at an exercise price of USD 48.75.
The transaction will not affect the shareholders' equity or capital ratios of
ING Bank, while the transaction is expected to have a positive effect of around
60 basis points on the ING Group CET1 ratio on a fully loaded basis. With this
transaction ING Group will have effectively transformed its remaining Group debt
position into a cash surplus at the Group level. With this, ING is meeting one
of its key commitments from the EC restructuring plan of eliminating Group core
debt.
The transactions are expected to result in a net profit to ING at closing of
approximately EUR 285 million. This broadly reflects the difference between the
market value of our 18.9% stake in Voya at the date ING lost significant
influence, and the current market value of this stake of approximately EUR 1.8
billion.
This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of
an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any
jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior
to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such
jurisdiction. The registration statement and preliminary prospectus supplement
relating to the offering may be obtained by visiting the SEC website at
www.sec.gov.
NOTE FOR EDITORS
For further information on ING, please visit ing.com. Frequent news updates can
be found in the Newsroom or via the (at)ING_news twitter feed. Photos of ING
operations, buildings and its executives are available for download at
Flickr.com. Footage (B-roll) of ING is available via videobankonline.com, or can
be requested by emailing info(at)videobankonline.com. ING presentations are
available at SlideShare.
For convenient access to the latest financial information and press releases
both online and offline, download the ING Group Investor Relations and Media app
for iOs on the Apple Store or for Android on Google Play.
Press enquiries Investor enquiries
Raymond Vermeulen ING Group Investor Relations
+31 20 576 6369 +31 20 576 6396
Raymond.Vermeulen(at)ing.com Investor.Relations(at)ing.com
ING PROFILE
ING is a global financial institution of Dutch origin offering banking services
through its operating company ING Bank and holding significant stakes in the
listed insurers NN Group NV and Voya Financial, Inc. The purpose of ING Bank is
empowering people to stay a step ahead in life and in business. ING Bank's
53,000 employees offer retail and commercial banking services to customers in
over 40 countries.
ING Group shares are listed (in the form of depositary receipts) on the
exchanges of Amsterdam (INGA NA, ING.AS), Brussels and on the New York Stock
Exchange (ADRs: ING US, ING.N).
Sustainability forms an integral part of ING's corporate strategy, which is
evidenced by ING Group shares being included in the FTSE4Good index and in the
Dow Jones Sustainability Index (Europe and World) where ING is the industry
leader in the diversified financials group.
IMPORTANT LEGAL INFORMATION
Certain of the statements contained in this document are not historical facts,
including, without limitation, certain statements made of future expectations
and other forward-looking statements that are based on management's current
views and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties
that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially
from those expressed or implied in such statements. Actual results,
performance or events may differ materially from those in such statements due
to, without limitation: (1) changes in general economic conditions, in
particular economic conditions in ING's core markets, (2) changes in
performance of financial markets, including developing markets, (3)
consequences of a potential (partial) break-up of the euro, (4) the
implementation of ING's restructuring plan to separate banking and insurance
operations, (5) changes in the availability of, and costs associated with,
sources of liquidity such as interbank funding, as well as conditions in the
credit markets generally, including changes in borrower and counterparty
creditworthiness, (6) the frequency and severity of insured loss events, (7)
changes affecting mortality and morbidity levels and trends, (8) changes
affecting persistency levels, (9) changes affecting interest rate levels, (10)
changes affecting currency exchange rates, (11) changes in investor, customer
and policyholder behaviour, (12) changes in general competitive factors, (13)
changes in laws and regulations, (14) changes in the policies of governments
and/or regulatory authorities, (15) conclusions with regard to purchase
accounting assumptions and methodologies, (16) changes in ownership that could
affect the future availability to us of net operating loss, net capital and
built-in loss carry forwards, (17) changes in credit-ratings, (18) ING's
ability to achieve projected operational synergies and (19) the other risks
and uncertainties detailed in the risk factors section contained in the most
recent annual report of ING Groep N.V.
Any forward-looking statements made by or on behalf of ING speak only as of
the date they are made, and, ING assumes no obligation to publicly update or
revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information
or for any other reason. This document does not constitute an offer to sell,
or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities.
PDF version of press release:
http://hugin.info/130668/R/1899418/674802.pdf
This announcement is distributed by GlobeNewswire on behalf of
GlobeNewswire clients. The owner of this announcement warrants that:
(i) the releases contained herein are protected by copyright and
other applicable laws; and
(ii) they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and
originality of the information contained therein.
Source: ING Group via GlobeNewswire
[HUG#1899418]
Unternehmensinformation / Kurzprofil:
Datum: 04.03.2015 - 15:16 Uhr
Sprache: Deutsch
News-ID 376169
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Kategorie:
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