LOLFed was surprised to learn Dutch just pumped 10 billion euros (appx $13.5 billion dollars at current exchange rates) into ING, whose market value right now is scarcely 1.5x that.

Oh, wait, not Ed O’Neill. The Dutch GOVERNMENT. Not Dutch. OK, we’ve got it now. The Netherlands set aside 20 bn euros for these kinds of investments, and that’s half their scratch on this transaction right here.

Terms (from CNBC):

ING will issue 1 billion of non-voting core tier-1 securities to the Dutch state at a price of 10 euros per security.

The Netherlands will have a position similar to common shareholders and the transaction is designed not to dilute shareholder capital.

ING can buy back the securities at any time at 150 percent of the issue price or convert them into ordinary shares — one for one.

The coupon on the securities of at least 8.5 percent is only due if a dividend is paid on common shares.

“Designed not to dilute shareholder capital” plus “position similar to common shareholders” kinda makes it sound like “If AIG doesn’t get their act together, the Dutch government stands to lose a lot of euros on this one.” Sounds like a good deal for ING. A cash cow if you will:

(At least that’s how Babelfish told me it’s said…)

Anyway, when we saw Fortis get carved up last month we all thought ING was doing better than Fortis, but these days “better” is obviously a very subjective term. ING booked srs losses for Q3 and the stock tumbled on Friday.

(And Jason, it’s my turn to say I don’t care who posted first!)