GE Capital’s divestment continues apace with sale of Australia/New Zealand consumer business

The company’s aim is to have at least three-quarters of earnings coming from the industrial area and the rest from GE Capital. In 2014, the industrial units accounted for 58%.

In one of the largest transactions seen in Australia, a consortium of private equity firm KKR & Co, alternative investment manager Varde Partners and Deutsche Bank has agreed to buy GE Capital’s Australian and New Zealand consumer lending arm for $8.2 billion, in enterprise value. The actual amount paid for the business has not been disclosed.

The three investors said they were “attracted to a business with more than three million customers and a long-standing relationship with many of the big retailers in Australia and New Zealand”.

GE has also disposed of its appliances unit, real estate holdings and a stake in NBCUniversal.

The streamlined GE Capital finance unit aims to focus on funding purchases of heavy equipment, lend money to mid-sized companies and to invest in commercial real estate.

GE’s Australian finance arm offers a range of services and products spanning personal loans, credit cards and also interest-free retail finance. It is a partner to several large retailers in providing their consumer finance loans. All of these products and services will remain under the company’s new ownership.

Last year GE held an initial public offering for its North American consumer business, now known as Synchrony Financial, and plans to spin off the rest to shareholders this year.

The corporate re-alignment comes as Immelt is under pressure to remake GE as a more focused industrial company and win over investors, but scaling back GE Capital will, inevitably, mean sacrificing a unit that generated $2.3 billion in profit last year.

Immelt has said he aims to reduce GE Capital’s share of the broader company’s profit to 25% in 2016 from 42% last year and more than 50% before the financial crisis.