GE Keeps Trimming Finance Business -- WSJ

By Cara Lombardo

This article is being republished as part of our daily reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S. print edition of The Wall Street Journal (September 8, 2017).

General Electric Co. sold the last of its stake in Penske Truck Leasing Co. for $674 million, the companies said Thursday, as part of the industrial conglomerate's plan to refocus its GE Capital business.

Penske Automotive Group Inc. and a Mitsui & Co. subsidiary bought the 15.5% stake, with Penske Automotive buying 35% of it and MBK USA Commercial Vehicles Inc. buying 65%, GE said.

Penske Truck Leasing, which was established in 1988 through a joint venture between Penske Corp. and GE Capital, was one of the last remaining pieces of the former GE Capital business. At its peak in the late 1990s, GE Capital was one of the country's largest banks. However, following the Great Recession, the company has been scaling down the size of its financial-services business and in 2015 announced it would exit banking.

GE Capital includes aviation-finance, industrial-finance and energy-finance businesses.

"To date, we have sold more than $201 billion in assets as we refocus GE Capital on financing businesses directly related to GE's industrial businesses," GE Capital Chief Executive and Chairman Rich Laxer said in prepared remarks.

Shares in GE were down 2.4% to $24.31 in Thursday trading.

Write to Cara Lombardo at cara.lombardo@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 08, 2017 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)

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