What will become of national broking network Austbrokers now its 50% shareholder ING has announced it wants to step out of general insurance?

While ING won’t rule out selling the company, it’s also making it plain it is in no particular hurry to move away from the cluster group. The future of Austbrokers and its outstanding constituent parts has been a matter of major conjecture in the industry since May, when ING announced it was moving out of general insurance.

ING Asia Pacific’s GM, Peter Smyth, made it clear where the company was heading, saying “general insurance is no longer a core business. Having secured a good price for the transaction, we are now confident this is an appropriate time to exit this business,” he said.

Sheel Kohli, ING’s Hong Kong-based spokesman, says he won’t rule out the sale of Austbrokers at some stage, and “you can never say never on issues like these”.

But “Austbrokers has been very successful and continues to handle some of ING’s core products, like life insurance and wealth management,” he told Sunrise Exchange News.