ING Plans $2 Billion Voya Stock Sale to Exit Insurer

ING Groep NV, the biggest Dutch bank, said it will sell its remaining 19% stake in Voya Financial Inc., completing its slow-motion exit from its former U.S. insurance unit.

Voya will repurchase $600 million of its shares in connection with the offering, according to a statement Tuesday from the New York-based insurer. The Dutch lender has received more than $6 billion for the 81 percent of Voya that it sold in five transactions starting with the initial public offering in 2013. The final sale of 45.6 million shares is valued at about $2 billion based on Voya’s closing price of $44.08 in New York trading Tuesday.

“ING is fulfilling their promises and they’re meeting the European Commission’s requirements,” said Lemer Salah, an Amsterdam-based analyst at SNS Securities with a buy recommendation on the shares. “It seems like they’re completing the mission of their restructuring story.”

ING received 10 billion euros ($11 billion) in Dutch government aid after losses on U.S. mortgage-backed securities in return for a commitment to sell assets. In November, it paid the final installment on its bailout after selling its U.S. retail bank and spinning off insurance businesses on both sides of the Atlantic.

ING shares were little changed at 12.96 euros at 10:27 a.m in Amsterdam. The Stoxx Europe 600 Banks Index was up 0.3 percent.

After the final divestiture, Voya may increase its quarterly payment of 1 cent a share to investors, Yaron Kinar, an analyst with Deutsche Bank AG, said in a Jan. 6 note to investors.

“With the exit by the former parent, the large-seller overhang is completely removed,” Kinar wrote. “We’d also expect the company to shift its capital deployment, distributing it between buybacks and dividends, thereby beginning to attract yield-oriented investors.”

Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. are arranging the offering, Voya said in a regulatory filing.