ING to sell Asia investment management separately

ING will auction its investment management business separately from its Asian insurance business.

It is a move that will allow a focused group to bid for the investment management unit.

Furthermore, it will allow the Dutch bank and insurance group to earn more money from the process, by selling two divisions for a premium instead of one.

But a dual-process has its complications and challenges and requires a company and its executives to take the time and energy to run two auctions instead of one.

When ING announced the sale of its Asia life insurance group last month, it was unclear whether the company would separate the asset management business from the auction.

A source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters that ING would in fact separate the auction into two parts. ING has hired Credit Suisse as the sell-side adviser for the sale of the investment management business, said the source, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the process.

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