ING Direct 2007 Annual Report Download - page 23

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Please find page 23 of the 2007 ING Direct annual report below. You can navigate through the pages in the report by either clicking on the pages listed below, or by using the keyword search tool below to find specific information within the annual report.

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Wholesale Banking 25%
Rest 75%
General Lending & PCM 29% 696
Structured Finance 17% 409
Leasing & Factoring 9% 220
Financial Markets 15% 354
Other 2% 56
ING Real Estate 28% 664
Total 100% 2,399
Financial Markets continued to seek
cross-selling opportunities across product
areas and client groups, including a new
strategy to target emerging markets.
And as the world’s largest real estate
investment company, ING continued to
experience solid growth in 2007 thanks
to our well-diversified portfolio.
Landmark deals
Wholesale Banking completed a number
of important deals in 2007 that illustrate its
array of services and capabilities.
In July, ING advised KPN on its acquisition of
Getronics (see business case). In September,
ING was one of four joint book runners in
a EUR 2 billion deal for General Electric
Capital Corp, the company’s biggest ever
euro-denominated transaction. The year
ended with an important advisory mandate
from Vedior on the intended public offer by
Randstad, a EUR 3.5 billion transaction to
create the second-largest human resources
services company in the world.
Looking forward
Wholesale Banking has identified priorities
to provide further growth and retain and
gain competitive advantage in a difficult
business environment. These include
growth initiatives in Structured Finance,
Financial Markets and ING Real Estate that
will focus on assets where ING can get
the best returns.
We will continue to increase efficiencies
and further improve the cost/income ratio,
while allocating further capital to
support growth in key product
areas and ensuring that we
maintain returns at an
attractive level.
The achievement I think we can
be most proud of in 2007 is the
way we’ve stayed the course
through some very stormy
weather. It may not sound sexy,
but sometimes it’s better to be
smart than sexy!
For me, the wholesale industry
is characterised by scale and
scope. You need a clear picture
of the optimum balance
between growth and risk for
your company to succeed.
ING can’t have scale in every
product. So we need to
choose our battlefields, both
geographically and in terms of
areas of activity. I believe that in
that respect, ING consistently
makes very clear and very
sound choices.
Eric Boyer de
la Giroday
Underlying profit before tax
in percentages
Product lines, based on underlying
profit before tax
in EUR million
21
ING Group Annual Review 2007