The \"Once in a Lifetime\" deal

In a massive sell-off forced by the need to pay back state bail-outs, ING Group has sold four of its real estate investment management companies and is now planning to divest more shares and subsidiaries. CB Richard Ellis has been the major beneficiary of this and still has the appetite for more corporate acquisitions Nathan North, Mladen Petrov The last few years have been quite a busy time for ING Group. ?In 2008 the Dutch government poured in EUR 40 bln of state aid to rescue the troubled financial sector. The financial health of global institutions such ING Group and Aegon was at stake. ING Group received EUR 10 bln in state aid and it still needs to repay around EUR 7.5 bln, including costs. Meanwhile, the global firm is doing its best to trim the fat and improve its balance sheets - and divestment seems to be one of the remedies for this. In January ING sold its Asian private banking operations to Singapore\'s Overseas-Chinese Banking Corp for USD 1.5 bln, one of its biggest di