General Electric to Exit Banking Sector

General Electric will sell its private equity business in a deal valued at about $12bn as it refocuses on its core industrial businesses and exits a banking sector now under stricter oversight.
The US Sponsor Finance business, which includes Antares Capital, GE Capital’s lending business to private equity-backed middle market companies, will be sold to the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, alongside a $3bn bank loan portfolio. GE is looking to sell most of the assets of GE Capital over the next 18 months, but plans to keep the financing components that relate to its industrial businesses. The Fairfield, Connecticut, company is transforming itself back into an industrial conglomerate that makes large, complicated equipment for other businesses.