Acquisitions and divestments
For the first time in a number of years 2007 was a year with significant acquisition activity. Two major transactions were concluded: the acquisition of Oyak Bank in Turkey and the acquisition of the Latin American pension fund business of Santander. Total consideration for these two purchases was approximately EUR 2.5 billion.
ING Insurance bought the asset management entity Landmark in Korea, a further 5% of ING Life Korea from Kookmin Bank and the pension administrator AZL in the Netherlands. Further acquisitions at ING Bank included the internet broker Sharebuilder in the United States, lease operations in Eastern Europe and a stake in TMB in Thailand.
2007 was also a very active year for divestments: the broker business of ING Insurance Belgium was sold, as was the remaining stake that ING Insurance held in Goudse Verzekeringen. At ING Bank most of the trust activities were sold, and next to that also RegioBank and Nationale Borg in the Netherlands, as well as a factoring joint venture in Belgium. The stakes in both SulAmérica in Brazil and Bank of Beijing in China were partially diluted through an IPO.