FAIRFIELD, Conn. — GE has received a binding offer from an affiliate of Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. for the potential sale of its French consumer finance business, GE Money Bank, and its operations in the French Overseas Territories (the DOMs). The sale would represent ending net investment (ENI) of approximately $4.6 billion as of the end of the first quarter of 2016, and excludes the platform’s approximately $2 billion prime mortgage portfolio which is being sold separately. The proposed transaction will be submitted to business works councils for their information and consultation. The completion of the transaction is subject to customary conditions including regulatory and antitrust approvals and is targeted to close in the fourth quarter of 2016.
“As we continue to execute on our strategy to sell GE Capital’s businesses that aren’t linked to GE, with the remainder of these transactions primarily in Europe, we’re pleased to announce this agreement for the potential sale of GE Money Bank France and the DOMs to Cerberus,” said Keith Sherin, GE Capital chairman and CEO. “The business is well-established in consumer finance and has made a substantial contribution to GE Capital’s European operations. Cerberus has a growing profile as a European financial services investor with MCS, a debt servicing business in France, and BAWAG P.S.K., a retail bank in Austria.”
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 directly to GE’s industrial businesses.
Including this transaction, and since the announcement in April, 2015, GE Capital has signed agreements for approximately US$177 billion and has closed approximately US$156 billion of those deals. GE Capital plans to sell approximately $200 billion of GE Capital businesses worldwide and expects to have largely completed the process by the end of 2016. GE Capital believes it is on track to deliver about $35 billion of dividends to GE under this plan, subject to regulatory approval.
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