GLOBAL - ING Group has made its first step in divesting its global insurance business with the sale of its Latin American pensions, life insurance and investment management operations and is now seeking to sell its US and European/Asian pension businesses.

ING has agreed to sell its Latin American pensions business to Colombia's Grupo de Inversiones Suramericana (GRUPOSURA).

Under the agreement, GRUPOSURA will pay as much as much €2.6bn in cash to ING and assume €65m in debt.

ING expects the deal to deliver a net transaction result of €1bn and reduce the leverage in ING Insurance by €2.8bn.

The transaction includes the following businesses:

The mandatory pension and voluntary savings businesses in Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay ING's 80% stake in AFP Integra in Peru The life insurance businesses in Chile and Peru - including ING's 33.7% stake in InVita Seguros de Vida in Peru. The local investment management capabilities in Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay

These businesses, which currently have assets under management (AUM) of €49bn, will be part of a Latin American savings and investments group with $120bn (€83.5bn) of AUM, according to ING.

The Dutch company is now seeking to divest other pension businesses around the world.

Jan Hommen, chief executive at ING, said: "Going forward, we continue to prepare our remaining insurance and investment management businesses for our base case of two IPOs - one for the US businesses and one for the European and Asian businesses - so that we will be ready to proceed when markets are favourable."

ING is also looking to sell its 36% stake in Brazilian insurer Sul America at a later stage.

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