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GE Closes Multiple Transactions to Complete First Quarter Activity

April 1, 2016 8:05 AM EDT
  • GE Completes Sales of Commercial Lending and Leasing Businesses in Japan and Mexico
  • Closings in First Quarter of More Than $42 Billion; Total Closings To Date Reach $146 Billion; Total Signings Reach $165 Billion

FAIRFIELD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- GE (NYSE: GE) announced today that has completed the previously announced sale of its commercial lending and leasing business in Japan, including Capital Finance, Fleet Services and Vendor Finance, to Sumitomo Mitsui Finance and Leasing Company, Limited (SMFL), a member of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group. Additionally, GE announced the completion of the sale of its Mexican equipment lending and leasing business to Linzor Capital Partners. Combined, the two closings represent approximately $6.2 billion in ending net investment (ENI).

In addition to today’s announcement, in recent weeks GE Capital has signed and closed a variety of smaller sales globally, including an agreement announced earlier today to sell GE Capital’s majority stake in Bank BPH’s Core Bank to Alior Bank. During the first quarter, GE Capital closed $42 billion of transactions, including closing $27 billion related to the North America Commercial Lending and Leasing business sale to Wells Fargo. The total closed transactions to date are now approximately $146 billion and signed agreements have reached more than $165 billion of the $200 billion in ENI that GE Capital plans to sell.

“In just less than a year since we announced our plan to divest the majority of GE Capital assets, we have made significant progress toward our goals,” said Keith Sherin, GE Capital chairman and CEO. “We wish our employees all the best as they transition to these successor employers.”

GE Capital announced the sale of its Japanese business in December, representing $5.2 billion of ENI. The buyer, SMFL, is one of Japan's largest leasing companies. It is developing business overseas, including in China, Southeast Asia and the United States.

Linzor Capital committed to purchase GE Capital’s Mexican equipment lending and leasing business in December, representing approximately $1 billion of ENI. Linzor was founded in 2006 and currently holds investments in the financial, education, industrial, retail, and consumer finance sectors across Latin America.

Today’s closings release approximately $0.8 billion of capital. GE Capital believes it is on track to deliver about $35 billion of dividends to GE under this plan, subject to regulatory approval.

As previously announced, GE is focusing on its high-value industrial businesses and is selling most GE Capital assets. GE will retain the financing verticals that relate directly to GE’s industrial businesses.

Earlier this week, GE announced that as it continues to execute the transformation of GE Capital into a smaller, more focused financial services firm, it filed its request to the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) for rescission of GE Capital’s designation as a nonbank Systemically Important Financial Institution (SIFI). More information regarding the application is available here.

About GE

GE (NYSE: GE) imagines things others don’t, builds things others can’t and delivers outcomes that make the world work better. GE brings together the physical and digital worlds in ways no other company can. In its labs and factories and on the ground with customers, GE is inventing the next industrial era to move, power, build and cure the world. www.ge.com.

GE’s Investor Relations website at www.ge.com/investor and our corporate blog at www.gereports.com, as well as GE’s Facebook page and Twitter accounts, including @GE_Reports, contain a significant amount of information about GE, including financial and other information for investors. GE encourages investors to visit these websites from time to time, as information is updated and new information is posted.

Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements:

This document contains "forward-looking statements" – that is, statements related to future events that by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain. For details on the uncertainties that may cause our actual future results to be materially different than those expressed in our forward-looking statements, see http://www.ge.com/investor-relations/disclaimer-caution-concerning-forward-looking-statements as well as our annual reports on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. We do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements. This document also includes certain forward-looking projected financial information that is based on current estimates and forecasts. Actual results could differ materially.

For GE
Investor:
Matt Cribbins, 203-373-2424
[email protected]
or
Media:
GE Capital:
Susan Bishop, 203-750-5362
[email protected]

Source: GE



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