ING buys and sells
Dutch financial services company ING announced it would buy the Latin American pension administration business of Spain's Banco Santander. The deal is for $1.3 billion.
This move makes ING the #2 administrator of pension services in Latin America, after only Spain's BBVA. ING was already involved in the pension market in Chile and Mexico, and was the #1 pension fund manager in Peru and ING may just be getting started. According to a Financial Times article ("ING in $1.3bn LatAm deal", 7/27/07): "The deal will make ING the third biggest group in Chile and Mexico, number five in Colombia and number two in Uruguay. ING is still negotiating to buy Santander's Argentine pension business, which is jointly owned with Banco de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. That operation is also Argentina's biggest pension fund administrator."
Banco Santander may have been willing to sell out as it is in the thick of current bidding war for Dutch Bank ABN Amro, where it is allied with Fortis and the Royal Bank of Scotland.
ING is growing aggressively. It is a major life insurer in the Asia Pacific area and the #1 life and pension insurer in Central Europe.
ING has been busy acquiring and deacquiring over recent years.
2007
Spun off its ING Trust division, which manages trusts and foundations
Sold its Belgian Broker and Employee Benefits insurance business to P&V Verzekeringen (€750 million)
Bought Oyak Bank in Turkey ($2.6 billion)
Bought Landmark Investment Management Co. Ltd in South Korea (around $220 million)
Sold its specialty insurance unit Nationale Borg to private equity groups
Sold its Regio Bank to Dutch financial services company NS REAAL.
Acquired AZL, a Dutch pension management company.
Sold Degussa Bank, which provides worksite banking for private customers to private equity.
2006
Sold its 85% share in Germany's Deutsche Hypothekenbank AG,
Bought ABN Amro's Taiwanese asset management division.
Sold UK brokerage division Williams de Broë
2005
Sold off Swiss-based Banque Baring Brothers, a private bank.
Bought Belgian bank Eural NV from Dexia Bank.
Bought Slovakian private pension provider VSP Tatry Sympatia
Sold private banking operation in France to Barclay's Bank.
Sold US-based Life Insurance of Georgia to UK's Prudential PLC.
Sold its Chilean property and casualty insurance operation to US-based Liberty Mutual Group.
Sold its Baring Asset Management to US-based MassMutual Financial Group and US-based Northern Trust Corp.
Sold its ING Insurance Argentina division to Swiss-based to Zurich Financial Services.
Sold its German private bank BHF-Bank.
Many of these deals are for less than $100 million. But their frequency bears witness to the constant restructuring, the reshuffling, that many large companies indulge in. The move from private banking toward pension fund management seems like the most salient trend in all these deals, along with an ever-expanding worldwide scope.
