GE sells European leasing businesses

GE has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the potential sale of its equipment finance and receivable finance businesses in France and Germany to leading French retail bank Banque Fédérative du Crédit Mutuel (BFCM).

The completion of the transaction is subject to customary regulatory and antitrust approvals, but is expected to represent an ending net investment (ENI) of approximately $7.5 billion (€6.6 billion).

GE Capital’s commercial lending and leasing (CLL) platforms in France and Germany provide factoring and leasing products and services to a broad range of commercial customers. As of Q3 2015, the platforms had net earning assets (NEA) of respectively $6.5 billion and $3.8 billion.

“We’re pleased to sign this MOU 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 are excited that our long-time partner for French factoring would take forward our CLL business in France and Germany,” he added.

LBFCM 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 embarking on a strategy to focus 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. The transaction would, if completed, contribute approximately $1.3 billion of capital to the overall target of approximately $35 billion of dividends expected to be paid to GE under this plan.