Morningstar hikes valuation for Australia's Helia after ING contract renewal

ING Groep

06/07/2026 20:42

** Morningstar raises fair value estimate for Helia Group HLI.AX by 5% to A$4.4
** Lenders mortgage insurance (LMI) provider on Tuesday said ING Bank (Australia) selected Helia as its exclusive LMI provider
** Morningstar says the deal reverses course from a year ago when ING told Helia it was negotiating with an alternative insurer
** Adds that losing ING as customer was priced in; while Helia likely accepted less favourable terms, the renewal is seen as a positive
** Investment research firm's medium-term profit forecasts increase by avg 7% after adding ING business back
** Because the book isn't shrinking as much as feared, we've scaled back our assumed cost savings and cuts to technology spending - Morningstar
** Helia up 14.7% so far this year, as of last close

 (Reporting by Nikita Maria Jino in Bengaluru)
 ((Nikita.Jino@thomsonreuters.com;))