Eurozone debt damages profit at bailed-out bancassurer ING
BAILED-OUT banking and insurance group ING yesterday posted a 22 per cent fall in quarterly net profit to €1.17bn (£923m) yesterday, missing forecasts as the cost of restructuring and the Eurozone financial crisis took their toll.
The Dutch firm has cut its exposure to Spanish debt from €41.4bn to €34.9bn since the start of the year, and yesterday booked a loss of €178m to account for its de-risking efforts.
As part of its plan to overhaul the business following a €10bn bailout in 2008, ING said it is hoping for a quick sale of its $7bn Asian insurance arm and is plotting IPOs for its European and US insurance units. Shares in the firm closed down 1.3%.