Ann: ING FY2018 First Half Results Announcement, page-3

It was a fantastic set of results which beat market expectations across all metrics.

The highlights (for me) were the huge reduction in interest bearing debt due to the impressive cashflows and the very optimistic statements about the future with expectations of volume growth and further gains in cost efficiencies. The outlook slide also contained the magic words "capital management options are under review" – in my experience any company which is even considering share buybacks etc is unlikely to disappoint.

Of course, the report also highlights the potential for some pressure on margins due to rising feedstock prices and rising energy costs (from after FY2018) and, before we get too optimistic on extrapolating results for the full year, ING has a first half skew in its results due to seasonal factors.

With a dividend yield of above 5% ING provides portfolio diversification from the usual yield stocks (which are mostly financials, resources or property).