Netherlands’ ING to Acquire Furman Selz

ING Group said it will pay $600 million for U.S. brokerage firm Furman Selz to boost its investment banking business in the world’s largest financial market. Its American depositary receipts fell, however, 56 cents to close at $45.13, as investors balked at the high price for New York-based Furman Selz. The price tag includes a base amount of $335 million to be paid when the sale closes, $165 million to be paid after three years, plus $100 million in employee bonuses. Analysts said that is a hefty amount, though they granted that ING needs the acquisition to get a better toehold in the U.S. The cost is above the $300 million to $500 million analysts expected ING to pay and equals the amount Swiss Bank Corp. paid when it beat out ING to acquire Dillon Read & Co., a larger bank, this year. ING is following a strategy of growth through purchases, notably in the U.S. The Furman Selz acquisition comes a month after the Dutch company paid $2.6 billion in cash and assumed debt for U.S. insurer Equitable of Iowa and two years after it bought British merchant bank Barings. Furman Selz ranked 24th among advisors on U.S. mergers last year, putting together $8 billion in transactions.