Capital One to buy Delaware-based ING Direct

Capital One will pay $9 billion to purchase ING Direct USA, which has its headquarters along the Wilmington Rriverfront.

The price tag includes $6.2 billion in cash and 56 million Capital One shares, currently worth about $2.8 billion.  The deal will create what Capital One officials say will be the fifth-largest depository in the nation.

ING’s highly visible “orange ball” branding will remain for now, but it could be ditched along with the ING trademark name following a transition period of about a year.  It’s not clear what will happen to the company’s employees in Delaware.  As of last year, more than 1,000 people worked at the Wilmington headquarters.

Capital One expects the purchase of ING to result in about $90 million in savings through more efficent operations.  A statement released by Capital One says the company “will work closely with ING Direct’s leadership team to establish a management structure designed to ensure that the combined company achieves the highest quality integration and has the best leadership in place to build on ING Direct’s great customer franchise.”

In March, ING Direct USA CEO Arkadi Kuhlmann said the bank would not leave Wilmington. Kuhlmann made the comments in reference to rumors that the bank was shuttering its riverfront headquarters.  At that time, Kuhlmann described morale among his associates as high and says his bank’s 14-hundred Wilmington employees need not worry.  “We love Wilmington, we love the riverfront… we’re looking for more employees.”

In 2008, Netherlands-based ING Group received a $14 billion dollar bank bailout. In exchange for support from the Dutch nation, one of the conditions ING agreed to was to divest ING Direct USA by 2013, which means sell its shares.