ING plans European insurance IPO in 2014

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch banking and insurance group ING , which last week spun off its U.S. insurance and investment unit, said on Wednesday it will push ahead with similar plans for its European business next year.

ING, which was bailed out by the Dutch state in 2008, is divesting its insurance, investment management and other assets through disposals or stock market listings and is cutting thousands of jobs to repay state aid and bolster its capital.

ING spun off ING U.S. Inc via a $1.3 billion (839.9 million pounds) initial public offering as part of its enforced separation of its global banking and insurance businesses.

"With that milestone completed, we are now accelerating preparations for the base case of an IPO of our European insurance company, with the aim of being ready to go to the market in 2014," Chief Executive Jan Hommen said in a statement.

ING reported first-quarter net profit of 1.804 billion euros ( $2.36 billion), up from 728 million euros a year ago and broadly in line with forecasts, driven largely by its banking business and boosted by divestments.

A poll of four analysts commissioned by Reuters gave an average forecast for net profit of 1.777 billion euros, ranging between 1.45 billion and 2.08 billion euros.

ING said results from its European and Asian insurance business remained under pressure because of the low-yield environment, reporting a first-quarter operating profit of 79 million euros, down 39 percent from 129 million euros a year ago and 161 million in the fourth quarter.

(Reporting by Sara Webb; Editing by David Cowell)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ing-q1-line-plans-european-insurance-ipo-2014-051429479.html

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