two becomes more than one

ING could be worth more as a pure bank. That wasn’t what investors thought on October 26, when they knocked 18% off the Dutch bancassurer’s share price on the news of the sale of the insurance arm, under orders from Brussels, and the launch of an E7.5bn rights issue. But this painful capital therapy could be good for the patient. At Wednesday’s E10 a share, ING is selling at just over 0.9 times the expected book value at the end of 2009. That E27bn in equity value for the whole group is substan...