ING Funds all set to sell 50 per cent stake

ING Funds (Thailand) expects the sale of a 50-per-cent stake to a new partner will be completed next month.

Bangkok Bank, or one of its subsidiaries, is thought likely to be buying the stake in ING Funds (Thailand), of which 49 per cent is owned by the Netherlands-based ING Insurance International BV and the remainder by Atlas Capital.

Maris Tarab, managing director of ING Funds, said ING Group's top executives would be coming to Bangkok this week to discuss the deal in detail.

"The new partner will be a major bank that already owns an asset-management firm. Negotiations are well advanced, and only the paperwork needs to be done. At this stage it will only be a strategic partner. However, the possibility of a merger of both asset-management firms has not been discussed so far," Maris said.

"At this stage the shareholding is 50-50. However, any changes in the ratio will depend on the negotiations."

Maris said the entrance of a new partner was expected to help ING Funds increase its assets under management by an additional Bt100 billion from Bt150 billion now.

ING Funds' portfolio excluding property funds for resolving financial institutions' problem loans is around Bt48.06 billion.

Sources in mutual-fund circles speculated earlier that the new partner would be Bangkok Bank or its affiliate Bualuang Securities. BBL is the major shareholder in Bualuang Asset Management, holding a 75-per-cent stake. Bualuang Securities' president Yarnsak Manomaiphiboon, however, did not admit or deny that his firm planned to acquire a stake in ING Funds.

He said only that investment in a mutual-fund company was an option now that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) allowed brokers to do this.

The bank recently began an aggressive overseas investment plan. It recently acquired a 10-per-cent stake in Bumrungrad International Holding, a company set up to invest mainly in overseas entities.

BBL president Chartsiri Sophonpanich then said the holding in Bumrungrad was to increase overseas investment opportunities. It has just received a licence to operate as a local bank in China.

Financial sources expected that the involvement of ING Funds would strengthen Bualuang Asset Management's Foreign Investment Funds as it only has one FIF, compared to a total of 33 in the industry.

Bualuang's assets under management total Bt101.71 billion, and the majority of them are fixed-income funds, which last year expanded its asset under management by almost Bt60 billion. The firm reported Bt41.98 billion assets under management at the end of 2005.

However, it has not been revealed whether BBL or its affiliate will hold the ING stake.

According to Bank of Thailand regulations, a bank cannot hold a stake in more than one asset-management company.

If a bank wants to hold a stake in another asset-management firm exceeding 10 per cent of the mutual-fund firm's registered capital, the bank must seek approval from the central bank on a case-by-case basis.

Siam City Bank earlier held a stake in ING Fund but sold its shareholding three years ago before setting up its own asset-management firm.

Piyarat Setthasiriphaiboon

The Nation