CANBERRA: General Electric Co. said it would sell its U.S., Mexico, Australia and New Zealand fleet businesses to Element Financial Corp. for $6.9 billion, as part of a broader effort to unload noncore assets.
GE also signed a memorandum of understanding for the potential sale of its European fleet businesses to Arval, a fully owned unit of BNP Paribas, before the end of the year, it added.
The acquisition would include the European unit of GE Capital Fleet Services that includes a fleet of 160,000 vehicles in 12 countries, valued at EUR2.4 billion as of March 31.
GE Capital Fleet Services provides commercial car and truck financing and fleet-management services.
GE is embarking a strategy to sell most assets of GE Capital; announced sales have totaled $63 billion. “We are on track to execute sales of $100 billion by the end of 2015 and expect to be substantially done by the end of 2016,” said GE Capital Chairman and Chief Executive Keith Sherin.
The U.S. and Mexico transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2015, while the Australia and New Zealand transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter. If approved, the Arval transaction is targeted to close in the fourth quarter.
