Major Dutch Investment Firm Closes Shop In MENA

Sandra Kilhof

5 February 2014

, the Netherlands-based financial-services firm, is closing its equity investment management business in the Middle East and North Africa after its Dubai-based team quit the firm, said a media report from Bloomberg.

According to the report, the region’s chief executive, Farah Foustok, is among those leaving. The Dubai office will remain as a sales office, Karl Hanuska, a spokesman for ING Investment Management told Bloomberg, declining to say where the team will now work.

ING has recently been disposing of global insurance and asset management operations as it completes an EU imposed restructuring program, which was a condition for a 2008 taxpayer bailout. Only last month ING announced a deal to sell its Taiwanese asset management business to Nomura Holdings. This is in addition to preparations for the sell-off of its insurance operations in Europe and Japan, together with its asset management operations in the Middle East, Europe, Singapore, Japan and US in an initial public offering this year.

As such, Hanuska told Bloomberg that the closure “is in line with the overall strategy of ING IM to only continue full-fledged local for local asset management operations business in countries where ING also has a strong insurance presence”.

ING Investment Management had $238 billion in assets at the end of September 2013. The Dubai team managed about €314 million ($424 million) at year end.

After several attempts at contacting ING, WealthBriefing had not yet been able to obtain a comment from the firm before going to press.