Banking, finance, and taxes

Bank IPO Kicks Off Below Expected Range

Bank
Thinkstock
ING U.S. Inc. (NYSE: VOYA) held its initial public offering (IPO) today and the U.S. insurance arm of Dutch-based ING Groep N.V. (NYSE: ING) raised $1.27 billion at an IPO price of $19.50 a share for 65.2 million shares issued. That is the second-largest IPO in the United States so far this year, but it is a disappointment for ING, which had hoped to sell the shares in a range of $21 to $24. The company will rebrand itself as Voya Financial.

The IPO was imposed on the company as a condition of a €10 billion bailout from the Dutch government in 2009. Now that the IPO is completed, the parent company will once again be allowed to pay a dividend to stockholders.

ING U.S. will use net proceeds of about $568 million from the IPO to reduce the €7 billion or so of double-leveraged debt and to repay the remaining €2.2 billion loan from the Dutch government.

Shares are trading up about 0.5% at $19.55 after the first half-hour of trading today.

Credit Card Companies Are Doing Something Nuts

Credit card companies are at war. The biggest issuers are handing out free rewards and benefits to win the best customers.

It’s possible to find cards paying unlimited 1.5%, 2%, and even more today. That’s free money for qualified borrowers, and the type of thing that would be crazy to pass up. Those rewards can add up to thousands of dollars every year in free money, and include other benefits as well.

We’ve assembled some of the best credit cards for users today.  Don’t miss these offers because they won’t be this good forever.

 

Flywheel Publishing has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Flywheel Publishing and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.

AI Portfolio

Discover Our Top AI Stocks

Our expert who first called NVIDIA in 2009 is predicting 2025 will see a historic AI breakthrough.

You can follow him investing $500,000 of his own money on our top AI stocks for free.