Dutch financial services giant ING Groep said Wednesday that it plans to sell all of its roughly 54 million shares in Capital One Financial Corporation in a public offering worth as much as $3 billion based on current exchange rates.
ING Groep acquired its 9 percent stake in Capital One last year, when McLean, Virginiabased Capital One paid $9 billion in cash and stock to acquire ING Direct USA. That deal was one in a series of transactions the Amsterdam-based insurance and financial services conglomerate has undertaken as it seeks to separate its banking and insurance arms and shed assets in order to repay a $13.5 billion government bailout it received in 2008. ING continued that push last week, The Am Law Daily reported, by agreeing to sell its Canadian banking unit to The Bank of Nova Scotia for $3.1 billion in cash.
In announcing the public offering, which is expected to be complete by September 15, ING said it expects it to generate a net profit of roughly $378.
New Yorkbased Sullivan & Cromwell corporate partners Andrew Soussloff and Mark Menting are advising ING on the offering. The firm has stayed busy advising ING in recent years, advising the Dutch conglomerate in connection with its 2009 restructuring plan and on such deals as the sale of ING Direct USA and the sale of the Canadian banking unit. ING’s in-house legal director is Jan-Willem Vink.
Meanwhile, Capital One is being advised by Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, according to a preliminary prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this year. Corporate partner Andrew Fabens is leading Gibson Dunn’s team on the matter. Morrison & Foerster capital markets partners Anna Pinedo and James Tanenbaum are representing a group of underwriters led by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and Citigroup.
John Finneran is Capital One’s general counsel.
