ING Group to sell 50-per cent Summit stake for $950 million

Dutch financial services giant ING Group said Friday that the company would sell its 50-per cent stake in ING Summit Industrial Fund LP (Summit), a Canadian industrial property portfolio to a Canadian joint venture for approximately C$1 billion ($950 million), reducing its exposure to the realty sector.

The buyers are Toronto-based KingSett Capital, Canada's leading private equity real estate firm, and Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo), Edmonton-headquartered institutional investor, which manages about C$70 billion of pension and endowment assets.

Summit is an investment fund which focuses on Canadian light industrial real estate and consists of over 400 industrial properties located primarily in major metropolitan market in the country.

Full value of Summit, including assumed debt is approximately C$2 billion. In addition to its 50-per cent direct holding in Summit, ING indirectly holds 7.8 per cent units of ING Industrial Fund (IIF), an ING managed property fund in Australia which owns the remaining 50 per cent of Summit.

As part of the deal, IIF has also agreed to sell its stake in Summit to KingSett-AIMCo partnership for C$1 billion, thereby ending ING's indirect participation in Summit as well.

''As we focus on improving the performance of the banking and insurance businesses, managing risk and our business portfolio remain important priorities,'' said Jan Hommen, CEO of ING Group.