Everyone in the industry seems to know something about ING’s plans for the $100 million float of the operations of its broker cluster Austbrokers, but the group itself is remaining tight-lipped.

It’s believed Austbrokers, which operates by buying a 50% stake of a members’ business and allowing the original owner to continue running the brokerage, intends to announce a float and launch a prospectus late this week.

It currently has 34 member firms and five associate members writing about $700 million in premiums.

The news doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Last year ING announced it wanted to get out of the general insurance market and sold its 50% stake in QBE Mercantile Mutual (now QBE Commercial) to QBE.

But at the time of the sale Austbrokers CEO Lach McKeough said there was no immediate threat of ING selling off the company.

Last week the Australian Financial Review reported speculation that merchant banker UBS is acting as underwriter and ING Corporate Finance is the financial adviser for the deal.