Dutch financial services major ING today reported a net loss of 712 million euro ($980.4 million) in the October to December quarter of 2009 after repaying a part of the bailout fund to the state government.
In the year-ago period, the company had a net loss of 3.71 billion euro, ING said in a statement. “Although asset impairments and revaluations continued to have a substantial impact on ING’s results, market conditions improved gradually through the course of 2009, and the negative impact of market volatility was substantially lower in the fourth quarter than a year ago,” ING Group CEO Jan Hommen said.
ING’s fourth quarter result includes a repayment of €930 million to the Dutch government.
The company said its loss includes “930 million euro related to an accrual of additional future payments to the Dutch State for the Alt-A facility.”
In December, ING had said it would repay 5 billion euro this month.
ING has reportedly received about 10 billion euro from the government at the height of financial crisis in 2008.
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ING’s banking businesses posted an underlying profit before tax of 132 million euro in the fourth quarter of 2009 compared to a loss of 1.84 billion euro in the same quarter last financial. The profit was mainly on account of good performance from retail and commercial banking segments.
In the insurance segment also ING has improved as underlying loss before tax narrowed to 47 million euro from 2.5 billion euro. These segments in Europe and America have also returned into profit, while Asia Pacific region posted underlying loss before tax of 29 million euro compared to 240 million euro in the year-ago period.
For the full year of 2009, ING posted underlying net profit of 748 million euro against a loss of 304 million euro in 2008.
“2009 was a tumultuous year for financial markets, and for ING. Yet even in this challenging environment, we made great strides to improve our operating performance, cut expenses and return to profit on an underlying basis,” Hommen said.