ING says to end stake in former insurance arm Voya

Leading Dutch bank ING on Tuesday said it will sell 45.6 million shares in the Voya group, ending its stake in its former US-based insurance arm.

"ING... agreed to sell shares of common stock of Voya Financial Inc. in an underwritten public offering," ING said in a statement, issued late Tuesday night.

Voya has also entered into a deal with ING to buy back shares of common stock for $600 million (536.8 million euros) from the ING Group, the statement added.

"The offering and the repurchase will result in the sale of the total of 45.6 million shares which will reduce ING Group's stake in Voya at the completion of the transactions to zero from the 18.9 percent currently held," Amsterdam-based ING said.

Previously the top Dutch bank received more than $6 billion for 81 percent of Voya, sold in five transactions starting in 2013, Bloomberg news agency reported.

The final sale is valued at about $2 billion, based on Voya's closing price of $44.08 in New York trading on Tuesday, Bloomberg said.

ING has restructured extensively over the last few years to repay a government loan to bail it out during the height of the 2008 banking crisis.

At the time it received a 10 billion euro cash injection from the Dutch state.

ING in November last year announced it would repay the loan ahead of time, after undergoing extensive restructuring.

This saw the Dutch lender sell off its insurance businesses in Asia, Australia, Canada, Latin America and the United States, as it sought to pay back the money, as well as an additional three billion euros in interest.

Last month ING announced it planned paying a dividend for the first time since 2008.