ING Prime Rate Trust Announces Intended Redemption of up to $100 million of Auction-Rate Preferred Securities

NEW YORK, Dec. 1  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ING Prime Rate Trust (NYSE: PPR) has announced today its intention to redeem a portion of its outstanding auction-rate preferred securities (ARPS). The Trust's Board of Trustees has approved a partial redemption that would be paid primarily by drawing on leverage available under the Trust's credit facilities. The redemption will provide liquidity at par for the holders of a portion of the Trust's ARPS. The Trust is a diversified closed-end management investment company listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Through a series of four quarterly periodic redemptions of up to $25 million each, the first of which is expected to occur in late January 2010, the Trust currently expects to redeem up to $100 million of the $225 million ARPS outstanding, approximately 44% by series, subject to satisfying the notice and other requirements that apply to ARPS redemptions. Upon completion of such notice and other requirements, the Trust will issue a formal redemption notice to the paying agent and record holders.  The amount and timing of subsequent redemptions of ARPS will be at the discretion of the Trust's Board of Trustees and management, subject to market conditions and investment considerations. As such, there is no assurance that the Trust will entirely redeem $100 million of ARPS.

The Trust expects to issue a formal redemption notice for the first redemption around the third week of December and anticipates that the redemption of $25 million of ARPS will be completed in late January 2010.

In July 2008, the Trust redeemed $225 million of the $450 million ARPS then outstanding on a pro rata basis by series at a redemption price equal to the liquidation preference of $25,000 per share, plus the amount of accumulated but unpaid dividends. The Trust currently has $225 million of ARPS outstanding.

The Depository Trust Company (DTC) will determine how partial series redemptions will be allocated among each participant broker-dealer account. Each participant broker-dealer, as nominee for its customers that are beneficial owners of the ARPS (street name shareholders), in turn will determine how redeemed shares are to be allocated among its customers. The procedures used by different broker-dealers to allocate redeemed shares among beneficial owners may differ from each other as well as from the procedures used by DTC.

Certain statements made on behalf of the Trust in this release may be considered forward-looking statements. The Trust's actual future results may differ significantly from those anticipated in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors, including but not limited to a decline in value in markets in general or the Trust's investments specifically. Neither the Trust nor ING undertakes any responsibility to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statement.

ING Investments, LLC, the manager of the Trust, is part of ING, a global financial institution of Dutch origin offering banking, investments, life insurance and retirement services to over 85 million private, corporate and institutional clients in more than 40 countries. With a diverse workforce of about 110,000 people, ING comprises a broad spectrum of prominent companies that increasingly serve their clients under the ING brand.

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ING is a global financial institution of Dutch origin offering banking, investments, life insurance and retirement services to over 85 million private, corporate and institutional clients in more than 40 countries. With a diverse workforce of about 110,000 people, ING is dedicated to setting the standard in helping our clients manage their financial future.

Important Legal Information

Certain of the statements contained herein are statements of future expectations and other forward-looking statements. These expectations are based on management's current views and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Actual results, performance or events may differ materially from those in such statements due to, among other things, (i) general economic conditions, in particular economic conditions in ING's core markets, (ii) performance of financial markets, including developing markets, (iii) the implementation of ING's restructuring plan to separate banking and insurance operations, (iv) changes in the availability of, and costs associated with, sources of liquidity, such as interbank funding, as well as conditions in the credit markets generally, including changes in borrower and counterparty creditworthiness, (v) the frequency and severity of insured loss events, (vi) mortality and morbidity levels and trends, (vii) persistency levels, (viii) interest rate levels, (ix) currency exchange rates, (x) general competitive factors, (xi) changes in laws and regulations, (xii) changes in the policies of governments and/or regulatory authorities, (xiii) conclusions with regard to purchase accounting assumptions and methodologies, (xiv) changes in ownership could affect the future availability to us of net operating loss, net capital loss and built-in loss carryforwards, and (xv) ING's ability to achieve projected operational synergies. ING assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information contained in this document.

Notice to U.S. Persons Regarding Rights Issue Announced on November 27, 2009

This document shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities in any jurisdiction. ING will arrange to send you the prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission if you request it by writing to Georgeson Inc., 199 Water Street - 26th Floor, New York, NY 10038, Attn. ING Group, or by calling toll-free [phone]. 

DATASOURCE: ING



CONTACT:  Dana E. Ripley, ING Insurance Americas, Office:

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