Dutch bancassurer ING has scrapped its plan to list its combined European and Asian insurance and investment operations, opening the way for a 5 billion-euro ($6.4 billion) trade sale for the more attractive Asian part of the package.ING blamed economic uncertainty for cancelling its combined initial public offering plan but a listing of the European insurance and investment operations was still possible, it said in a statement on Thursday.Chief Executive Jan Hommen told reporters ING had received "strong interest" for the Asian operations but was currently not in talks. Its shares rose to a five-week high.Potential buyers of the Asian business include U.S.-listed Prudential Financial and Canadian-listed Manulife , banking sources have told Reuters.
Prudential Financial, Inc. is a financial services company. Shares of PRU traded higher by 0.77% or $0.42/share to $54.77. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $42.45 and as high as $67.52. On average, 4866250 shares of PRU exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 1711459.
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