ING investors cheer Dutch government cash

By Gilbert Kreijger and Faith Hung

AMSTERDAM/TAIPEI (Reuters) - Investors in financial group ING cheered a 10 billion euro ($13.5 billion) Dutch government cash injection and a disposal on Monday, with shares recovering much of their hefty losses from the previous session.

Shares in the Netherlands' biggest listed bank jumped 23 percent to 9.03 euros in early trade as analysts said the government cash took away fears of a highly dilutive share issue and created a buffer to weather the credit crisis.

After a weekend of intense negotiations, ING became the latest European bank to seek government help to shore up its core capital and restore investor confidence following the partial nationalization of rival Fortis two weeks ago.

ING has also agreed to sell its Taiwan life insurance unit to Fubon Financial for $600 million, it said on Monday.

"We are in a large financial storm, and the storm has been building in recent weeks. We wanted to make sure we had a buffer, a buffer large enough to carry us through the storm," ING Chief Financial Officer John Hele told CNBC.

"Our shareholders and customers, all our stakeholders don't have to worry about ING group."

As its shares rose, ING's market capitalization jumped by more than 3 billion euros to about 18.8 billion euros, but the shares recouped only part of a 27.5 percent drop on Friday to a 13-year low.

The shares have fallen 67 percent since the start of the year, compared with a 45 percent drop of the DJ Stoxx European insurance index.

"A rough estimate is an earnings per share decline of a third to 2 euros. It takes into account the capital support costs but also the expected recession effect next year," Petercam analyst Ton Gietman said. He tentatively cut the target price to 15 euros from 26 euros and raised his recommendation to "buy" from "hold" on the government deal.

"A share issue would have been much worse and would not have been possible in the current market," said Fred Huibers, asset manager at Haags Effectenkantoor, who holds ING shares.

BARGAIN

As policymakers around the world pour in billions of dollars of state cash to help stabilize their banks, financial institutions such as ING and U.S. insurance giant AIG have been selling off non-core overseas assets to help shore up their capital positions.

Petercam's Gietman did not expect ING to sell further assets.

"It's not on ING's wish list to sell assets and I don't think it's necessary. You are not going to sell assets at a time when markets are bad because you will get a low price," he said.

In Taiwan, Fubon's shares climbed by their 7 percent daily limit, and Yuanta Core Pacific Securities analyst Renee Yang called the deal "a bargain for Fubon".