GE has received a binding offer from a Cerberus Capital Management affiliate for the sale of its French consumer finance unit GE Money Bank and its French Overseas Territories (the DOMs) business.
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The sale would exclude the unit’s prime mortgage portfolio, worth about $2bn, which will be disposed separately.
GE said that the sale would represent ending net investment of nearly $4.6bn as of the end of the first quarter of 2016.
The deal is expected to be concluded in the fourth quarter of 2016, subject to regulatory and antitrust approvals.
GE Capital chairman and CEO Keith Sherin said: "As we continue to execute on our strategy to sell GE Capital’s businesses that aren’t linked to GE, with the remainder of these transactions primarily in Europe, we’re pleased to announce this agreement for the potential sale of GE Money Bank France and the DOMs to Cerberus.
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By GlobalData"The business is well-established in consumer finance and has made a substantial contribution to GE Capital’s European operations. Cerberus has a growing profile as a European financial services investor with MCS, a debt servicing business in France, and BAWAG P.S.K., a retail bank in Austria."
The latest sale forms part of GE’s strategy to simplify operations by offloading most of its GE Capital assets and instead focusing on its high-value industrial businesses. GE will retain the financing verticals that relate directly to GE’s industrial businesses.
GE Capital intends to offload about $200bn of its operations across the globe and expects to wrap up the process by the end of 2016. With the new deal, GE Capital’s announced sales total about $177bn.
