Mizuho Financial Group, Inc. Message Board

ING dutifully followed the EU approval directive and conditions (which by the way, well, actually was more like punishment, for the liquidity crunch and Dutch state loan, at the bottom of the 2008 crisis) to clean its business portfolio, and ING completed a lot of forced sells of noncore business units all over the world.

ING sold in this last 5 years into a very weak demand for bank/insurance businesses almost all of its noncore businesses at an average of less than book price by now.
This process added to and improved ING's central treasury's liquidity, provided time to restructure, rethink core business strategy. BUT this period is over after 5 years, this ING does not need any more. It needs something else.
As the price for the so-called help, the forced sells destroyed real business value for ING shareholders, prevented to develop and destroyed almost all growth paths available for ING, at home and on emerging markets. ING still keeps paying a huge price for state loan in a zero interest rate environment.

One more that kind of bailout, and ING will collapse under the weight of outside "help".

Lets face facts: at the end, this was not help. This was max. a well-intended idea with VERY BAD final results. The end result was much closer to a bank robbery, orchestrated by EU, institutionalized by EU conditions. This destroyed tens of billions (most probably over $40B!) real value. Filled the coffers of the buyers of sold units, the state, and helped win IPO buyers at rock-bottom prices.

No wonder here: every time a state of superstate EU mixes into business, it destroys value, and the real effect is opposite to what was intended.
This crazy silliness MUST stop NOW.

ING price started up in May last year, and looks like doing the same thing again this year.
Last year the price started at $6 and finished at 10.5 at yearend;
since then ING corrected the rally by FIBO 38%.

If we are in longerterm, like in a 10 year uptrend,
(I really think we are, after almost 7 years of downward correction),

then by the end of 2013 we should see ING price to hit $13-14.
This is the point when ALL remaining weak hands will sell,
and in 2014 ING will break above $14. And should march ahead up by $3-4/year, for 10 years.

Most of us strongly hope the new management team will be able to perform MUCH better
than the incompetent Jan's team did in the last 4 years.

By my Elliott count of AAPL
-wave A down started 4/10/2012 from $628
-wave B up stated 5/18/2012 from $430
-wace C down started from $700

Wave C down should have 5 subwaves, and if you identify the gap on 1/24/2013 as 3 of 3 down,
then it is quite easy to count 4 subwaves completed.

If wave (5) of C will be equal to wave (1) of C (which is a common relationship)
then (5) should be $170 long, started down on 3/25/2013, from $470,
and should end at $300.

This will be the first really good buying opportunity.
Since the last down waves usually have 5 subwaves,
usually form a falling wedge,
it should be easy to follow this "very pessimistic" scenario.

ING Groep Names Belgian Head Hamers CEO to Succeed Hommen
By Maud van Gaal - Feb 22, 2013 1:03 PM GMT+0100.
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ING Groep NV (INGA), the biggest Dutch financial-services company, promoted Ralph Hamers to be chief executive officer, replacing Jan Hommen, the former chairman who led the firm through the aftermath of a government bailout.

The 46-year-old Hamers, a Dutch national, has led the company’s Belgian and Luxembourg banking unit since 2011 and will take the top job in October. Hommen, whose four-year term as CEO ends on May 13, will have his contract extended by four months to “ensure a smooth leadership transition,” the Amsterdam-based company said in a statement today.

Hamers will become responsible for completing a European Union-imposed restructuring plan that will see ING sell its global insurance and investment-management operations before the end of 2018 and repay the remainder of the Dutch government’s 10 billion euros ($13.2 billion) in bailout money by May 2015. Hamers joined the company in 1991 and has run ING’s Dutch banking unit and its global commercial lending division.

“Hamers, while a surprising candidate, seems well suited for the job,” said Matthias De Wit, a Brussels-based analyst at Petercam SA with a hold rating on the shares. “He’s proven to be a capable and experienced manager and has a lot of experience in risk management.”

Shares Rise

ING shares rose 1.7 percent to 6.28 euros at 12:40 p.m. in Amsterdam, giving the company a market value of 24 billion euros. That’s a gain of more than 50 percent since Jan. 23, 2009, the last trading day before Hommen took the top job.

Hommen, 69, became CEO after chairing ING’s supervisory board. He took over from Michel Tilmant after the company’s 2008 bailout and has disposed of assets from Latin America to Asia, including the sale of ING Direct USA to Capital One Financial Corp. (COF)