GrupoSura Takes WB as Stakeholder in ING Deal

Colombia’s Grupo de Inversiones Suramericana (GrupoSura) has agreed to take on the World Bank as a minority stakeholder in its recent $3.76bn (EUR2.68bn) purchase of ING’s Latin American pension and insurance assets. The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s investment arm, has paid $200m for a 5% stake in the business, the company confirmed. A GrupoSura official said the Colombian financial holding is also contemplating as many as two additional minority partners in the deal which could be announced in days. GrupoSura’s plan is to take on as many as three minority partners before closing the ING deal on Dec.20. The minority partners will control no more than 25% of the business. In July, the Colombian firm struck a deal to buy ING’s pension and insurance assets in Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay and Peru for EUR2.68bn, consisting of EUR65m in assumed debt and EUR2.615bn in cash. At the time, the deal valued the ING assets at a 1.8x book value, or 18x estimated 2011 earnings on a GAAP basis, a significant premium to the 0.7x price-to-book ratio. As such, the deal came at the high end of analyst estimates for the value of the assets.