Allianz, Axa and Zurich Financial Services Group, among the winners of financial crisis in insurance, are potential suitors for the insurance unit, investment bankers said.
“There is interest in ING’s Asia-Pacific assets and I could imagine some unsolicited bids,” said a senior London banker. “There is industrial logic for Allianz, Axa and Zurich to consider such a move and these companies see themselves as consolidators in their industry,” he said, adding that Generali was a less likely suitor because of uncertainty surrounding the tenure of its veteran Chairman Antoine Bernheim.
Analysts say the AIG sale supports the valuation of ING’s businesses and that ING will be able to exit insurance at book value of around €16 billion ($21.73 billion) or more before the end of 2013, by when it must sell the business. UBS research analysts put proceeds of a divestment of the Asian business at €5.6 billion.
“ING’s Asian business is not the likes of AIA, but it is good. I thought we could see some unsolicited bids even before the Prudential deal was announced,” said a second investment banker. Zurich Financial, AXA and Allianz all declined to comment. ING, splitting off its global insurance operations as part of a restructuring deal mandated by the European Union, has made clear since late October that it preferred an IPO rather than a trade sale for the insurance unit.
Yet at the same time, ING has also made no secret of the intense trade interest in the business, with Chief Executive Jan Hommen famously saying he had to use “hands and feet” to count all the suitors who had called him.
“The route we’re working on is an IPO ... and while working on that we’re keeping our eyes open for other options as they might come along,” a spokesman for ING said.
Any buyer would face challenges in taking on the business and its 6,500 employees, among them ongoing difficulties with the book in Japan.