UPDATE: ING To Sell Its U.S. Reinsurance To RGA For EUR100 Million

ING Groep NV (ING) will sell its U.S. group reinsurance business, ING Reinsurance U.S., to U.S.-based life reinsurance provider Reinsurance Group of America Inc. (RGA), the Dutch bancassurer said Friday.

ING said the deal, which is expected to realize a gain of EUR100 million for the Dutch firm, should be closed in the first quarter of 2010.

The deal will have "a limited positive impact" on ING's 2010 earnings and improve the debt/equity ratio of ING Insurance by around 60 basis points, the bancassurer said. The transaction, structured as a reinsurance agreement between ING and RGA, must still be approved by U.S. competition regulators.

Further terms of the agreement weren't disclosed.

The transaction is part of ING's "Back to Basics" strategy, through which it wants to release EUR6 billion to EUR8 billion by selling non-core business.

ING will concentrate its U.S. insurance operations on retirement, life and annuities products, it said. Thursday, ING announced the sale of its Asian private banking assets to Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. (039.SG) for $1.46 billion.

At 0730 GMT, ING shares were up 0.8% at EUR12.65.

-By Bart Koster; Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]