Taiwan bank buys subsidiary of Netherlands' ING

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - Taipei Fubon Financial Holding Co. announced Monday a US$600 million plan to acquire the Taiwanese subsidiary of Netherlands' ING Groep NV.

Fubon Chairman Daniel Tsai said Taiwanese ING Life Insurance will merge with Fubon Life Insurance to become Taiwan's second largest insurance firm with assets totaling 1 trillion New Taiwan dollars (US$30.5 billion).

With the acquisition, the ING group will acquire 5 percent of Fubon Holdings' newly issued shares and an unspecified amount of cash, which it will use to buy Fubon's bonds, Tsai said.

"The ING Group will not pull its funds out of Taiwan following the deal,'' Tsai said in a statement.

He said Fubon decided to buy the ING subsidiary because of its sound liquidity.

"It almost didn't possess any foreign structured notes,'' he said.

Hans van der Noordaa, a board member of the Amsterdam-based ING Group, said the merger is expected to significantly boost Fubon's revenues in Taiwan's insurance market. ING has 2.2 million clients in Taiwan.

On Sunday, the Dutch government announced it will invest euro10 billion (US$13.4 billion) in ING Groep NV to boost the bank and insurance company's capital position.

The deal, which makes the Dutch government a major shareholder in ING, was necessary even though there had been no run on the bank, Dutch Finance Minister Wouter Bos said.

Source The Star 20.10.2008