Bail ING Out
The Dutch government said Sunday that it would inject €10 billion into ING Group after the financial services company became the latest victim of the global financial crisis.
The capital injection, in the form of nonvoting preferred shares, works out to about $13.4 billion, giving the government an 8.5 percent stake in the bank. The new funds, ING said, will create "a strong buffer to navigate the current market and economic environment."
The announcement came after top bank executives spent the weekend in urgent talks with government and central bank officials concerned about the prospect that ING might collapse when trading started on Monday. Shares of ING fell more than 27 percent on Friday in Amsterdam after the company said it expected to post a third-quarter loss of €500 million as a result of €1.6 billion in write-downs.
The capital injection, in the form of nonvoting preferred shares, works out to about $13.4 billion, giving the government an 8.5 percent stake in the bank. The new funds, ING said, will create "a strong buffer to navigate the current market and economic environment."
The announcement came after top bank executives spent the weekend in urgent talks with government and central bank officials concerned about the prospect that ING might collapse when trading started on Monday. Shares of ING fell more than 27 percent on Friday in Amsterdam after the company said it expected to post a third-quarter loss of €500 million as a result of €1.6 billion in write-downs.
