RGA To Acquire ING Re Group Life Business

Tom McInerney, chief executive of the ING Insurance Americas operation, says ING made the deal to simplify its structure and focus U.S. insurance operations on retirement services, life insurance and rollover annuities.

“Although ING Reinsurance is not part of ING’s core businesses in the U.S., it is a solid, well-run, and client-focused business that will complement a company that considers reinsurance its core business,” McInerney says.

The deal will have little effect on ING’s earnings, but it should improve the debt/equity ratio at ING Insurance by about 0.6 percentage points, ING says.

After completing the deal, ING will still have a run-off reinsurance portfolio that it has had since 2002, the company says. ING’s ReliaStar unit also will be keeping its direct group insurance business.

Andrew Kligerman, a securities analyst in the New York office of UBS Investment Research, says RGA will be getting about 90 staffers from ReliaStar.

“Since ‘group’ business can be non-renewed/re-priced (unlike, say, in-force individual term life policies), the risk of deal mis-pricing is mitigated,” Kligerman writes in a comment about the deal.