ING mulls selling Australia online banking unit

StanChart is among the lenders in talks with ING for the 12-year-old ING Direct unit with estimated value of $6.5bn.

ING Groep NV (INGA), the biggest Dutch financial-services company, is weighing the sale of its Australian online banking unit, said two people with knowledge of the matter.

ING has canvassed interest from lenders including Standard Chartered Plc (STAN), said the people, who declined to be identified because the talks are private. ING may also consider selling some of its commercial-banking operations in Asia, the people said.

The 12-year-old ING Direct unit in Australia, which offers banking services over the Internet and telephone, has about 1.4 million customers, according to its website. Amsterdam-based ING, which received a bailout during the financial crisis, plans to reduce its balance sheet by about 45 percent from 2008 levels. The company agreed to sell insurance and U.S. online banking divisions as a condition for European Union approval of its rescue.

“If they are selling both the U.S. and Australian online banks, this would underline ING is increasingly focusing on the European retail market,” said Jan Willem Weidema, an Amsterdam-based analyst at ABN Amro Group NV.

“Giving up part of your expansion by exiting growth markets in Australia and Asia doesn’t have to be bad as long as you get a good price for them.”

ING Direct Australia may be valued at between 2.6 billion euros and 4.4 billion euros ($6.5 billion), Weidema estimated, taking into account valuations for Australian competitors.

Raymond Vermeulen, an Amsterdam-based spokesman for ING, declined to comment, as did Beverly Mathews, a Standard Chartered spokeswoman in Mumbai. David Breen, a Sydney-based spokesman for ING Direct in Australia, also declined to comment.

View the full story in Bloomberg.