Bancherul - BANCI / Stirea Zilei / ING DIRECT receives regulatory approval for public takeover bid for Germany's largest mortgage distributor Interhyp

ING DIRECT N.V. announced today that it has received regulatory approval from the Dutch Central Bank for the public takeover bid for Interhyp AG, Germany’s largest independent residential mortgage distributor. The public takeover bid is therefore no longer subject to any completion conditions, said the bank in a statement.

The Interhyp public tender offer acceptance period expires on July 24th. Interhyp shareholders who have tendered their shares to ING DIRECT by that date will be paid no later than eight banking days after that date. ING DIRECT has no minimum requirement for the number of shares that need to be tendered.

ING DIRECT announced its intention to make a public takeover bid for Interhyp on May 19th. The tender offer was launched on June 20th at EUR 64 per share, valuing the company at EUR 416 million. In addition, Interhyp shareholders were still entitled to the dividend of Interhyp AG for the fiscal year 2007 in the amount of EUR 2.10 per share, plus an additional one time payment of EUR 2.00 per share, which have already been distributed following the shareholder’s meeting of Interhyp on 4 June 2008.

This transaction will be booked in the third quarter of 2008.