ING Life Insurance Korea raises $974 million after pricing IPO near

Korea’s fifth-largest life insurer ING Life Insurance has priced its initial public offering (IPO) near the lower end of an indicative range, raising its Asia-based private equity owner MBK Partners 1.1 trillion won ($974 million). ING Life’s listing will be South Korea’s second-largest so far this year after smartphone games maker Netmarble Games Corp priced its IPO at the top of its range, raising $2.3 billion won. The insurer said it can continue paying hefty dividends as it has a good capital-adequacy ratio and because it depends on higher-margin captive agents for growth, rather than independent insurance agents. It priced its IPO at 33,000 won per share, compared with an indicative range of 31,500 won to 40,000 won each, ING Life said in a filing. The pricing gives the whole company a pre-listing valuation of 2.71 trillion won. MBK, which bought ING Life from ING Groep NV for about 1.8 trillion won in 2013, will retain about 59.1 percent of the insurer after the listing, an ING Life spokeswoman said.