UPDATE 4-ING receiving heavy interest for insurance unit

* Counting potential insurance buyers on "hands and feet"

* Will prepare IPO but consider sale options for insurance

* Net profit 499 million euros, vs year-earlier loss * Shares rise 5.2 percent

(Adds CEO's Bank of Beijing comments)

By Ben Berkowitz

AMSTERDAM, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Dutch bancassurer ING Group (ING.AS) has received strong interest in its insurance operations, but has not decided if it will sell them to a strategic buyer or the public, the company said.

ING Chief Executive Jan Hommen said on Wednesday he would have to use his "hands and feet" to count all of the companies that have contacted him about the insurance operations, which ING said on Oct. 26 it would sell as part of an aid-linked restructuring deal with the European Commission. [ID:nLQ54845]

Some potential buyers have already publicly expressed interest, including Britain's Aviva (AV.L), Spain's Mapfre (MAP.MC) and Poland's PZU, though Hommen has said he would like to see the operations remain together and that an IPO might be the best choice for that. [ID:nL6693127]

"We have plenty of time, we're not in a hurry, we're not a distressed seller ... we will do it in a quite orderly fashion," Hommen told reporters on a conference call.