PARIS: General Electric Co on Thursday said that it had received a binding offer from an affiliate of the private equity company Cerberus Capital Management for its French consumer finance business.
The sale of GE Money Bank in France, as well as operations in certain French overseas territories, would be the latest exit by GE as it seeks to focus on its industrial roots after years of expansion into finance.
The deal is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in the fourth quarter.
“The business is well-established in consumer finance and has made a substantial contribution to GE Capital’s European operations,” GE Capital chairman and chief executive Keith Sherin said in a news release.
Last year, GE said it would sell the bulk of its finance arm, GE Capital. Since then, GE Capital has entered into agreements for asset sales worth about US$177 billion.
The sale of GE Money Bank would represent an ending net investment — a measure of the total capital invested in the business — of about US$4.6 billion as of the end of the first quarter and would exclude its US$2 billion prime mortgage portfolio, which is being sold separately, GE said.
GE has sold or exited from a number of finance businesses in Europe as part of its reshaping plan.
The most recent came in last month, when GE Capital sold 51 percent of Moneta Money Bank, its banking business of in the Czech Republic, in an initial public offering.
