GE completes sale of European equipment finance business

General Electric (GE) has completed the sale of its equipment finance and receivable finance businesses in France and Germany to Banque Fédérative du Crédit Mutuel (BFCM), representing ending net investment (ENI) of approximately $6.8 billion as of first quarter 2016.

“We’re pleased to complete this transaction with BFCM for a significant piece of our European business,” said Keith Sherin, GE Capital chairman and CEO. “As we continue to execute on our strategy to significantly reduce the size of GE Capital, we wish our commercial finance employees in France and Germany the very best as they join BFCM,” he added.

BFCM is part of CM11 which belongs to Crédit Mutuel group, the second largest retail bank in France with a strong competitive positioning in home loans, SME and non-life insurance.

As previously announced, GE is focusing on its high-value industrial businesses and is selling most of GE Capital’s assets. GE will retain the financing “verticals” that relate to GE’s industrial businesses. Since the announcement, GE Capital has signed agreements for the sale of approximately $183 billion of businesses and has closed approximately $168 billion of those transactions. GE Capital plans to have largely completed the process of selling approximately $200 billion of GE Capital businesses not linked to GE by the end of 2016.