ING still searching for real-estate for new headquarters

ING Antai Life Insurance Co (安泰人壽) yesterday denied reports that it has canceled a plan to purchase a Grade-A office building in Taipei's Hsinyi District to serve as its headquarters.

The company is still searching for a site for a planned NT$6 billion building, Kenneth Shih (石寶忠), chief executive officer of ING Antai, said yesterday. ING wants to finalize the project by the end of this year, he said.

Local Chinese-language media said that the Dutch-based ING Group, the parent of ING Antai, decided to cancel the property project shortly after the US-led invasion of Iraq began.

"ING hasn't asked us to call off the plan because of the war," Shih said, adding that local real-estate investment decisions are unrelated to the war.

ING Antai, the country's biggest foreign insurer, is planning to diversify its investments in Taiwan after declining interest rates hurt returns. The central bank has cut its benchmark interest rate for 14 times to 1.625 percent since December 2000.

The company sees further investment in the property market as a must.

"We have around NT$180 billion in assets, but we have only put about NT$1 billion into real estate," Shih said.

ING Antai has commissioned real-estate agent CB Richard Ellis Taiwan Ltd (世邦魏理仕) to hunt for commercial property in Taipei.

Adam Rosenfeld, CB Richard Ellis' associate director for corporate services said that they're still evaluating business opportunities for ING and has not seen any negative impact on the local office-building market because of the war.

Asked whether ING is holding out for the right price, the industry veteran said that "it's all a perception of worth."