Dutch bank ING's profit fall disappoints investors

By Jakob Van Calster and Mateusz Rabiega

(Reuters) -A lukewarm outlook from ING combined with a fall in profit hit the Dutch bank's shares on Thursday, as its CEO reiterated his interest in buying European rivals.

ING, one of Europe's biggest online banks and mortgage lenders, reported annual net profit of 6.4 billion euros, a fall of 12% on a year earlier and below analysts' forecasts.

Shares in ING fell by as much as 4% after CEO Steven van Rijswijk said he did not expect total annual income to grow in 2025, as the ECB continues to cut interest rates.

The European Central Bank cut its deposit rate by 25 basis points to 2.75% last week, bringing an end to steadily higher borrowing costs supporting bank profits.

"We anticipate revenue at the same level as last year, so 22.6 billion (euros)", van Rijswijk said, adding that ING expects to make up for the hit to net interest income (NII) by raising fees and repricing deposits.

Asked about global trade tensions after U.S. President Donald Trump's recent tariffs, van Rijswijk sought to give investors some encouragement.

"It's not all doom and gloom," he said. "You do see growth in Europe. Half of our loan book is in mortgages in the Netherlands, in Germany, in Belgium, and Poland."

Although property prices across much of Europe have been hit by their worst rout in a generation, van Rijswijk, was optimistic, adding: "Housing markets are expected to come back."

ING's CEO told Reuters that he was looking for acquisition opportunities, potentially joining a wave of takeovers sweeping Europe with Italy's UniCredit leading the charge as it targets COMMERZBANK-UNICREDIT-e68bffe8-949f-4244-b8ab-76fcfffe3e84>COMMERZBANK-RESULTS-6a9eabc8-8eba-4148-aa56-8c955a2d57b3>COMMERZBANK-UNICREDIT-e68bffe8-949f-4244-b8ab-76fcfffe3e84>COMMERZBANK-LAYOFFS-a8b75e55-254b-40e8-9290-ad5b828929db>Commerzbank.

"We can diversify from a geographical point of view, but we can be diversified better in our existing segments," he told journalists, referring to earlier comments about exploring options in Germany, Italy and Spain.

ING's acting CEO for Spain, Almudena Roman, said she was examining options.

"If something comes up that might be interesting, then we will consider it and we will undertake it," she said. "The consolidation ... of entities in Spain ... represent an opportunity."

In Spain, one of Europe's biggest banks, BBVA, announced a hostile takeover bid for rival Sabadell.

ING, which has around 40 million customers, expects fee income to grow by 5% to 10% in 2025, after an 11% jump to 4 billion euros ($4.15 billion) last year, while NII slumped by nearly one billion euros.

It said its forecast for the year ahead did not include the impact from its recent Russian business sale.

($1 = 0.9629 euros)

(Reporting by Mateusz Rabiega and Jakob Van Calster in Gdansk, additional reporting by Gianluca Lo Nostro and Jesus Aguado in Madrid; Writing by John O'Donnell in Frankfurt; Editing by Varun H K, Alexander Smith and David Evans)