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ING Group: Reaching for a government lifeline

Underscoring the rapid spread of the global credit crisis, the government of the Netherlands this week invested $13.4 billion in ING Group, a Dutch banking and insurance giant hit hard by real estate losses, said Dana Cimilluca and Carrick Mollenkamp in The Wall Street Journal. ING, which “just weeks ago was seen as a savior” for other struggling financial companies, saw its stock plunge last week after it announced a $670 million quarterly loss. The government investment in the form of nonvoting preferred stock, ING said, will create “a strong buffer to navigate the current market and economic environment.”

The money comes with strings attached, said Simon Kennedy in Marketwatch.com. The government will get two seats on ING’s board as well as key roles on the company’s audit and governance committees. And ING “will have to take another look at its pay and bonuses policy.” Members of the bank’s executive committee are barred from receiving any bonuses this year, “and payouts for departing executives are limited to one year’s fixed salary.”

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Energy: Exelon swoops down on NRG

Utility operator Exelon this week offered $6.2 billion for wholesale power generator NRG, increasing speculation that depressed stock prices could trigger a wave of consolidation among utilities, said Mark Williams in the Associated Press. NRG “stock has plummeted over the summer,” falling from $43.95 in July to $19.33 last week. NRG said it would study the offer. Two years ago, NRG turned down an $8 billion takeover bid from Atlanta-based Mirant Corp., saying the price was too low.

Bailouts: AIG’s bonuses draw fire

New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo wants AIG to retrieve bonuses paid to some of its discredited executives, said Carol Leonnig in The Washington Post. Cuomo last week criticized AIG, the financial colossus that the U.S. has propped up with $124 billion in emergency financing, for paying fat executive bonuses while it “slipped toward insolvency.” Cuomo singled out AIG’s payment of $34 million, plus a $1 million monthly consulting fee, to the former head of the division that “was largely responsible for the risky credit default swaps that swamped AIG.”

Media: Is Redstone losing his grip on Viacom?

Sumner Redstone, the 85-year-old media mogul who controls CBS and Viacom, said last week he sold $233 million in stock in the two companies, said Geraldine Fabrikant in The New York Times. Redstone sold the stock to help National Amusements, a private company he also controls, repay $1.6 billion in loans. The sale “unnerved” investors in CBS and Viacom, by “raising questions about whether Redstone would have to sell additional shares” to pay the loans down further, thus sparking concern that his control of the media companies could slip.

Wall Street: Peering into Lehman’s collapse

Richard Fuld, who lost his job as CEO of Lehman Brothers after it filed for bankruptcy protection in September, has been subpoenaed in three grand jury investigations of Lehman’s fall, said Zachery Kouwe in the New York Post. The investigations’ “focus is on whether Lehman executives made false comments about the health of the firm prior to its collapse.” Prosecutors could also be interested in reports that Lehman may have “shifted cash among some of its subsidiaries” before its bankruptcy filing, seeking to hide assets from creditors.