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ING and Piraeus start unwinding cross-shareholding


WEBWIRE

ING Group announced today that ING and Piraeus Bank have started to unwind their respective cross-shareholdings. ING Group and Piraeus Bank will continue their alliance and joint initiatives in the area of bancassurance.

ING has had a strategic alliance in the form of an insurance and asset management joint venture with Piraeus Bank since 2002. As part of the partnership the two companies decided to take mutual cross-shareholdings, with ING taking a 5% stake in Piraeus Bank and Piraeus bank taking a 20% stake in ING Greece. In 2004 Piraeus Bank’s 20% stake was converted into ING Group shares, representing a stake of 0.15% in ING Group.

ING Greek Life Insurance Company S.A. and ING Greek General Insurance Company S.A. have engaged Citigroup Global Markets Limited to place their entire stake in Piraeus Bank, consisting of 8.357.875 ordinary Piraeus Bank shares, to domestic and international institutional investors via an accelerated bookbuilding process.

At the same time, Piraeus Bank has engaged ING Corporate Finance to sell on Euronext Amsterdam all 3.350.000 certificates of ING Groep N.V. shares currently held by Piraeus Bank through a series of moderated sales.

In line with the alliance agreement between the parties, the net proceeds of the sale of ING shares will be transferred to ING while the net proceeds of the sale of the Piraeus shares will be transferred to Piraeus.

The unwinding of the cross-shareholding is expected to be completed early next week.

ING is a global financial institution of Dutch origin offering banking, insurance and asset management to over 60 million private, corporate and institutional clients in more than 50 countries. With a diverse workforce of about 115,000 people, ING comprises a broad spectrum of prominent companies that increasingly serve their clients under the ING brand.



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