An offfical at the country’s sole exchange operator, Korea Exchange, told Reuters that the insurer, controlled by Asia-based private equity firm MBK Partners, had applied for a listing.
ING Life Insurance, which MBK acquired from the Netherlands’ ING Groep in late 2013, said in a statement last December it had chosen Morgan Stanley and Samsung Securities as lead advisers for an IPO.
ING Life had KRW31.8trn (£22.4bn, $27.9bn, €26.3bn) in assets as of end-September 2016, and reported net profits of KRW304.8bn in 2015, up from KRW223.5bn in 2014, according to the company.
Seoul-based analysts predict the IPO would be worth about KRW1.5trn.
