ING Posts Losses for Third Quarter
ING Groep NV, the financial-services firm that got a 10 billion-euro ($12.6 billion) lifeline from the Netherlands last month, said write-downs amounted to 1.51 billion euros in the third quarter and may extend through year end.
The third-quarter loss, the first since the company was created in 1991, was 478 million euros, or 22 cents a share, the Amsterdam-based company said today in a statement. That was less than the 500 million-euro loss ING the company forecast last month and compared with net income of 2.31 billion euros, or 1.08 euros, in the year-earlier period.
ING wrote down the value of stocks, bonds, Alt-A and subprime mortgages and assets related to the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Chief Executive Officer Michel Tilmant, who agreed last month to sell non-voting securities to the Dutch state, said asset prices will still be under pressure in the fourth quarter, and the weakening economy will hurt next year's results.
"There are still risks, and the Alt-A mortgage assets are one of them,'' said Folmer Pietersma, who helps oversee about $300 million as a fund manager at Robeco NV in Rotterdam, in an interview before the results were released. ``The question continues to be how many writedowns will follow.''
Published on November 12, 2008
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