ING takes Q4 impairment at low end of expectations
LONDON (Reuters) - Dutch financial services group ING (ING.AS: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Wednesday it took an impairment charge of 194 million euros ($285.6 million) in the fourth quarter, but gains from an ABN stake sale helped offset the loss, pushing quarterly net profit up 7.6 percent.
Net profit rose to 2.48 billion euros, or 1.18 euros per share, in the fourth quarter, compared with an average forecast of 2.34 billion euros, or 1.12 euros per share, according to seven analysts polled by Reuters. Net profit was 2.31 billion euros in the previous quarter.
ING said it booked a gain of 1.03 billion euros on the sale of its stake in Dutch rival ABN AMRO to a consortium of three banks. The bulk of the gains had been taken in the previous quarter.
Analysts polled by Reuters had expected ING to write down between 200 million and 1 billion euros on its risky investments, including RMBS investments backed by subprime loans and "Alt-A" loans, which are made to borrowers with a slightly better credit profile than those in the subprime category, as well as from collateralized debt obligations (CDOs).
Additionally, ING said it had a negative revaluation of 751 million euros on investments in subprime, Alt-A and CDO in the fourth quarter, although they were not directly booked as a loss.
ING Chief Executive Michel Tilmant said "solid risk management" helped to shield ING from the worst of the credit and liquidity crisis that has forced banks on both sides of the Atlantic to take large impairments on investments backed by mortgage loans to risky borrowers.
"ING's exposure to the riskiest assets is limited, and the RMBS investments we selected have a high level of structural credit protection to absorb significant losses as the U.S. housing crisis deepens."
ING's insurance arm had an underlying profit of 1.82 billion euros, up 41.6 percent, while banking profit rose 4.4 percent to 1.15 billion euros.
(Reporting by Reed Stevenson, editing by Will Waterman)
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