ING Belgium NV today announced that it has agreed to acquire Eural NV from Dexia Bank België NV. In the course of 2006, Eural will be merged with ING Belgium's unit Record Bank.
Under the terms of the agreement, Eural's 103 employees will transfer to Record Bank, along with its network of 233 independent bank agents who are mainly active in Flanders. The works councils of ING Belgium, Record Bank and Dexia Bank België have been informed of the acquisition.
The acquisition of Eural further expands Record Bank and ING's second distribution network in Belgium following the purchase of Westkrediet in 2002, AGF Belgium Bank in 2003 and Mercator Bank in 2004.
The acquisition will expand Record Bank's distribution network in Belgium to more than 900 bank agents and add 115,000 customers to its existing customer base of 400,000. Total deposits in the combined entity will amount to more than EUR 8 billion.
Record Bank offers a wide array of savings, investment and lending products to private customers, professionals, self-employed people and family companies. It will also introduce insurance products in 2006.
Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed, however, for ING Group the transaction will have a minor negative impact of around 2 basis points on the Tier 1 ratio of the banking operations. The acquisition is subject to applicable regulatory approvals and is expected to be completed by the end of 2005.
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ING is a global financial institution of Dutch origin offering banking, insurance and asset management to over 60 million private, corporate and institutional clients in over 50 countries.
With a diverse workforce of about 114,000 people, ING comprises a broad spectrum of prominent companies that increasingly serve their clients under the ING brand.
