ING Seen Divesting SulAmerica Unit

Itau Securities says ING may sell SulAmerica after the Dutch institution’s CEO Jan Hommen announced the company intends to divest between €6bn- €8bn of non-core assets around the world. ING plans to focus its insurance segment on pension and life businesses. SulAmerica acts as a diversified insurer that goes beyond the pension and life areas, which makes Itau think the company will be sold. Itau says a possible buyer may be Banco do Brasil, which could merge its insurance companies with SulAmerica. “Banco do Brasil has JVs and partnerships with several insurers, and the bank announced that it is planning to reorganize them,” Itau says, adding that a few other insurers in the local market are also natural JV partners for SulAmerica. It does not mention them by name. Itau rates SulAmerica’s stock a buy, with year-end fair value of BRL36.60. The stock closed at BRL21.25 April 9. SulAmerica has a market cap of BRL2bn.