The dispute over US
debt reverberated around Wall Street this week; with the fearful
atmosphere fostering only two major deals. The first of these came on
Monday, when the ING Group sold Insurance Latam, its Latin American
unit, to investment firm Grupo de Inversiones Suramericana for $3.9
billion. This sale came as part of the bid by the financial services
giant to separate its insurance and banking components; a condition
of its bailout from the Dutch government. The seller was down 2%. The
following day, New Mountain Financial acquired a controlling stake
in SNL Financial for an undisclosed fee. The buyer, a midmarket
private equity firm, was down 0.6%.