Allen & Overy has advised ING Group on the KRW1.84 trillion (approximately USD1.7bn) sale of its South Korean life insurance business, ING Life Korea, to private equity firm MBK Partners, South Korea’s largest private equity group.
This will be South Korea’s largest ever insurance transaction.
ING Life Korea, with 1.3m customers, is the largest foreign life insurer in the country. The terms of the deal allow ING Life Korea to continue to operate under the ING brand for the next five years. ING will also provide MBK with advice and other technical support for one year to help smooth the transition. While subject to regulatory approval, it is expected the deal will close later this year.
ING Life Korea is the latest in a long line of successful divestments by ING in Asia on which Allen & Overy has advised. The firm’s head of M&A for Asia Pacific, Gary McLean, commented: “We are very pleased to see this deal over the line – there were a number of hurdles but ultimately ING has secured an exit from its Korean insurance business in line with its announced strategy. These transactions for ING play well to our network strengths given the depth and experience of our team in all of our 11 offices in Asia Pacific and the ties we have with our teams in London and the Netherlands with whom we work closely.”
The Allen & Overy team was led by partner Gary McLean (Hong Kong) with assistance from partner Richard Roberts (London) and Hong Kong-based associates Jinghua Zou, Benjamin Crawford and Catherine Liu.
Previous Asian divestments on which the firm has acted for ING Group include:
• The USD1.7bn sale of its Malaysian insurance business to AIA.
• The USD2bn sale of its life insurance, general insurance, pension and financial planning units in Hong Kong and Macau, and its life insurance operation in Thailand, to Pacific Century Group.
• The disposal of insurance businesses in the PRC via the sale of a 50 per cent. stake in ING-BOB Life Insurance Company Limited to BNP Paribas Cardif.
• The sale of ING’s investment management business in South Korea to Macquarie Group.
