ING to sell insurance units in Hong Kong

Dutch banking and insurance group ING said Friday it will sell its insurance units in Hong Kong and Macau to Pacific Century Group for US$2.14 billion (1.64 billion euros) in cash. "This transaction underscores the steady progress we continue to make in our restructuring," in which the Dutch group plans to sell off its insurance but not banking activities in Asia, ING chief executive Jan Hommen said in a statement. ING announced last week it will sell off its Malaysian insurance activities for approximately 1.3 billion euros. The Dutch group said the latest transaction, which also includes its Thai combined life insurance operations, will deliver a net gain of approximately 1 billion euros in the in the first quarter next year. Pacific Century Group is a private firm founded by Richard Li, chairman of Hong Kong's largest telecom operator HKT, and has interests in financial services, real estate, satellite communications, media and telecommunication services in Asia. ING put its Asian business up for sale in January after scrapping plans to float the unit along with its European insurance operations, saying a tough market in Europe no longer made a combined European-Asian IPO sensible. The European Commission has told ING to restructure its business, as the Dutch firm seeks to repay 10 billion euros in state aid it received in October 2008 during the financial crisis.