ING to cut back on F1 sponsorship

The Dutch-based company says it is expecting to make a loss of 1 billion Euros for 2008 as a result of the worldwide financial crisis. In a bid to make up for the losses, it has announced a widespread cost cuts programme - which will include laying off 7000 people.

In a statement issued by the company on Monday, it confirmed that one of the measures to be implemented would be a reduction in its F1 sponsorship programme.

"ING will cut operating expenses by EUR 1 billion in 2009," said the statement. "The structural expense reduction will lead to annual savings of approximately EUR 1.1 billion from 2010 onwards. Of the cutback, 35% will come from a reduction of the workforce by approximately 7000 full-time positions in 2009.

"The remainder of the expense reduction comes from decreasing costs for our head office, marketing, the Formula One program, consultancy, third-party staff and the renegotiating of certain contracts with IT-vendors. Of the total expense reduction, EUR 650 million will be realized in Banking and EUR 350 million in Insurance."

As well as being title sponsor of Renault, ING has also paid for trackside advertising and was the official race sponsor for last year's Australian, Belgian and Hungarian Grands Prix.

This year, the company is to sponsor the races in Australia, Belgium, Hungary and Turkey.

Jan Hommen, Chairman and CEO-designate of ING, said about ING's future plans: "Naturally, I am disappointed with our results in this extremely tough environment. With the continuing challenging outlook, we feel it is important to take additional action to decrease our risks and expenses.

"We sincerely regret the impact that some of the measures we are announcing today will have on our colleagues, but these steps are essential to adapt our organization to the new business environment."