ING completes the sale of its stake in ING Canada

19 February 2009

ING Group announced today that it has completed the sale of its 70% stake in ING Canada via a private placement and a concurrent “bought deal” public offering. ING no longer owns an interest in ING Canada, the largest provider of property & casualty insurance products and services in Canada.

On 4 February, ING announced it had entered into agreements to sell 36.18 million common shares of ING Canada through a private placement, and an additional 47.76 million common shares of ING Canada through a concurrent “bought deal” public offering in Canada. Gross proceeds from the private placement and the additional “bought deal” of ING’s entire stake in ING Canada are CAD 2,163 million. As a result of these transactions the debt/equity ratio of ING Insurance will decline by more than 400 basis points. The transactions will be booked in the first quarter of 2009.

The secondary offering was led by CIBC World Markets Inc. and TD Securities Inc., and included a syndicate of underwriters. CIBC World Markets Inc., and Goldman, Sachs & Co., acted as agents in connection with the private placement.

ING remains active in Canada through its subsidiary ING DIRECT Canada, which is not impacted by these transactions.

Press enquiries

Raymond Vermeulen
ING Group
+31 20 541 5682

raymond.vermeulen@ing.com


IMPORTANT LEGAL INFORMATION

he securities referred to herein have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “U.S. Securities Act”), and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy such securities in the United States or in any other jurisdiction where such offer is unlawful.

Certain of the statements contained herein are statements of future expectations and other forward-looking statements. These expectations are based on management's current views and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Actual results, performance or events may differ materially from those in such statements due to, among other things, (i) general economic conditions, in particular economic conditions in ING's core markets, (ii) performance of financial markets, including emerging markets, (iii) the frequency and severity of insured loss events, (iv) mortality and morbidity levels and trends, (v) persistency levels, (vi) interest rate levels, (vii) currency exchange rates (viii) general competitive factors, (ix) changes in laws and regulations, (x) changes in the policies of governments and/or regulatory authorities, (XI) conclusions with regard to purchase accounting assumptions and methodologies, (XII) ING's ability to achieve projected operational synergies. ING assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information contained in this document.



ING Profile

ING is a global financial institution of Dutch origin offering banking, investments, life insurance and retirement services to over 85 million private, corporate and institutional clients over 40 countries. With a diverse workforce of about 125,000 people, ING is dedicated to setting the standard in helping our clients manage their financial future.