General Electric is selling off its commercial lending and leasing businesses to Wells Fargo, part of GE’s push to shed its financial service operations.
The deal, which will include $32 billion in assets and 3,000 employees, will close in the first half of next year.
The business lines being sold are GE Capital’s global commercial distribution finance, North American vendor finance and corporation finance platform.
The price Wells Fargo is paying has not been made public, according to the Wall Street Journal.
GE has been divesting itself of its lending and financing operations, and spinning off its GE Capital unit, in order to focus on the company’s core manufacturing business. In April, Blackstone announced it would buy $14 billion worth of GE’s numerous properties and mortgages, while Wells Fargo would buy $9 billion worth of loans. Other investors filled the gaps in the $26.5 billion deal.
Blackstone also bought a real estate debt asset portfolio valued at about $640 million from Mubadala GE Capital, a joint venture between GE and Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Development. [WSJ] – Ariel Stulberg