FAIRFIELD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--GE (NYSE:GE) announced today that it has completed the sale of its Equipment Finance and Receivable Finance businesses in France and Germany to Banque Fédérative du Crédit Mutuel (BFCM), representing ending net investment (ENI) of approximately $6.8 billion / €6.1 billion as of first quarter 2016.
“We’re pleased to complete this transaction 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 wish our commercial finance employees in France and Germany the very best as they join BFCM,” he added.
BFCM 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 focusing 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. Since the announcement, GE Capital has signed agreements for the sale of approximately US$183 billion of businesses and has closed approximately US$168 billion of those transactions. GE Capital plans to have largely completed the process of selling approximately $200 billion of GE Capital businesses not linked to GE by the end of 2016.
The transaction contributed approximately US$1.3 billion of capital to the overall target of approximately US$35 billion of dividends expected to be paid to GE under this plan.
About BFCM & CM11 Group
With more than 4,063 branches CM11 Group is one of the leading French retail banks. BFCM, the group’s holding company, owns and controls the French and foreign operational subsidiaries (insurance, banking, IT, etc.) including CIC, Targobank (in Germany and Spain), CIC Iberbanco (in France) and Cofidis (in France, Belgium, Spain and Portugal). It also manages the funding and liquidity of the group and serves as a vehicle for external growth transactions.
As at 31 December 2015 CM11 Group had €38.7 billion of shareholders’ equity, a common equity tier 1 ratio (as required under CRR/CRD4 without transitional Provisions) of 15.1%, managed €583 billion of deposits and savings and €304 billion of outstanding loans, with net income of €2.5 billion. BCFM’s credit ratings are among the highest levels assigned to French banks.
About GE
GE (NYSE:GE) is the world’s Digital Industrial Company, transforming industry with software-defined machines and solutions that are connected, responsive and predictive. GE is organized around a global exchange of knowledge, the "GE Store," through which each business shares and accesses the same technology, markets, structure and intellect. Each invention further fuels innovation and application across our industrial sectors. With people, services, technology and scale, GE delivers better outcomes for customers by speaking the language of industry. www.ge.com
