ING announced today that it has reached an agreement with OYAK to acquire Oyak Bank for an amount of USD 2.673 billion (EUR 2.0 billion against the exchange rate of 15 June, 2007).

Under the terms of the agreement ING will acquire 100 per cent of the shares in Oyak Bank for a cash consideration of USD 2.673 billion which will be financed entirely from existing internal resources. The transaction is expected to result in a decrease in the Tier 1 ratio of ING Bank NV of approximately 50 basis points. The proposed purchase will have no impact on the ongoing share buy-back programme.

Michel Tilmant, Chairman of the executive board of ING Group said, "Oyak Bank is a high quality bank with a strong position in the rapidly growing Turkish market. The acquisition is in-line with our strategy of supporting the strong organic growth of the group with suitable add-on acquisitions and will provide ING with a solid banking platform with significant further growth potential. It also provides the opportunity to distribute wealth management products in the future as the market further grows."

Founded in 1984, Oyak Bank is a professional and well managed, top ten bank in the Turkish market with 5581 employees and a market share of approximately 3%. It offers a full range of banking services with a focus on retail banking. The bank has 1.2 million active retail customers and 10,000 SME customers. In total it has 360 branches throughout Turkey, with a good representation in all major cities.

In 2006 it made pre tax profits of YTL 165 million and at the year end it had total assets of YTL 11.8 billion and its book value was YTL 988 million. Based on the consideration, the transaction will result in a Price/Book multiple of 3.26 of shareholder's equity as at 31 March 2007, a Price/Earnings multiple of 26.6 times the 2006 normalised earnings and is expected to be accretive to ING's EPS as of 2008.

Eli Leenaars, Executive Board member responsible for ING's global retail banking activities said: "Given our experience in Poland and Romania this is an exciting opportunity to enter another major fast growing market. Oyak Bank is a strong bank with an excellent management team. By further leveraging ING's retail banking expertise, especially in internet banking, marketing and risk management in combination with Oyak Bank's strong distribution and knowledge of the market, we are in a good position to rapidly expand our position in Turkey."

ING expects to increase Oyak Bank's market share over the next five years as it assists Oyak Bank in executing its growth strategy by improving its internet banking and marketing capabilities and risk management function. Oyak Bank will be integrated in the retail banking business line of ING Group and will be re-branded under the ING brand within the first year after the closing of the transaction.

ING expects to close the transaction in the second half of 2007. The acquisition is subject to approval of the relevant authorities.