Leading Dutch bank ING yesterday announced it was offering a minority public stake in its NN Group insurance business, in the final stage of restructuring imposed after a government bailout following the 2008 banking crisis.
“ING today confirms the intention to proceed with [an] initial public offering [IPO] and listing on [the] Euronext Amsterdam of NN Group,” ING said in a statement.
“The intended IPO will consist solely of a secondary offering of a minority holding of NN Group’s ... shares held by ING,” the Amsterdam-based bank said.
Although ING did not put a price on the offer, it announced in April it had secured 1.275 billion euros (US$1.7 billion) in investment in the NN Group ahead of the initial offering.
Three Asian-based companies would act as “anchor investors,” injecting 150 million euros into the insurer.
In addition, ING has issued mandatory exchangeable subordinated notes to the anchor investors valued at 1,125 billion euros.
ING itself valued the NN Group at 10.7 billion euros.
ING added it planned to sell more than half of its shares in NN Group by the end of next year and the rest by the end of 2016.
The sale of NN Group forms part of ING’s restructuring imposed on it by the European Commission after a 10 billion euro government bailout during the height of the 2008 banking crisis.
ING has already paid back more than 13.5 billion euros of the state loan received in October 2008 and is expected to pay two more installments each worth 1.1 billion euros by May next year.
So far, ING has sold businesses in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Latin America and Asia as part of its restructuring.
Chief executive officer Ralph Hamers said that “today’s announcement signals the launch of the final major transaction in ING’s five-year restructuring.”
“With the IPO of NN Group, we have substantially completed the repositioning of ING as a pure bank,” he said.
NN Group is a leading Dutch insurer and investment management company that has branches in more than 18 countries, mainly in Europe and Japan.
It posted a before-tax turnover of 905 million euros last year.
NN Group said it aimed to pay 175 million euros in dividends to shareholders by next year.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last