South Korea's ING Life banking on high dividends to help sell US$1.2b IPO

Seoul

PRIVATE equity-owned ING Life Insurance Korea is banking on its hefty dividend payouts to draw investors to its planned initial public offering (IPO) that could raise as much as US$1.2 billion in one of South Korea's bigger public floats.

The nation's fifth-largest life insurer by assets, wholly owned by Asia-based MBK Partners, will list in the second week of May, CEO Cheong Mun Kuk said on Wednesday. The IPO would be South Korea's second-largest float so far this year, behind Netmarble Games's planned US$2.4 billion IPO.