Dutch company now plans trade sale of European and Asian insurance and investment operations

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Dutch banking and insurance firm ING has scrapped plans for listing its European and Asian insurance and investment operations because of the poor economic outlook.

ING needs to spin off its insurance and investment management operations by the end of 2013 in return for European Commission approval for €10bn of Dutch state aid received in 2008. It is a similar situation to RBS, which has to sell its general insurance arm by 2013.

“That mature market business is a portfolio that is unattractive for divestment,” SNS Securities analyst Lemer Salah said about the European business.

Bankers said in August that ING might get a bigger pay-out if it chose to sell the Asian and European insurance operations to other insurers instead of listing them as one company, Reuters reports.