ING AND PROTECCION OF SURA GROUP ARE IN THE MERGING PROCESS

ING AND PROTECCION OF SURA GROUP ARE IN THE MERGING PROCESS

The Antioquian Company, Sura Group, bought the last year the operation of ING in most of the Latin American countries.

Now is time for them to end the acquisition process with a merge. The Colombian company said in press release that they presented all the paperwork to the Superintendency of Finance and is waiting for a response in order to get the approval for the merge of the companies.

Proteccion’s Board of Directors approved the call for an Extraordinary Assembly of Shareholders in order to vote for the merge of the companies with Proteccion as the acquiring company and ING as the target company.

Proteccion would become as the number 1 pension fund in the country surpassing Porvenir of Grupo Aval. The antioquian company would have the largest number of clients, assets and profits.

But not everyone is seeing with good eyes this merge. The analysts are saying that is not a good forecast that the pension fund business get more concentrated and also is not a good thing that the offer could get more reductions, due to the lack of competences that could lead the system into an oligopoly. Currently there are 6 pension funds in Colombia, and after the merge will be 5. The regulations are very strict and the entry barriers to the market are very high, which generates problems to create a new contestant or for the arrival of a new contestant from the international market.