General Electric sells European unit to Sumitomo for $2.2 billion

General Electric is to sell its European buyout-lending unit to Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group for $2.2 billion.

This adds to its disposal of finance operations to focus on industrial businesses.

The transaction is expected to be completed in the third quarter, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

Chief executive officer Jeffrey Immelt is refocusing on industrial operations, making products such as jet engines, gas turbines and medical scanners.

Japanese banks are looking abroad for growth as a declining population and shrinking loan margins hamper profit prospects in the world’s third-largest economy.

The sale extends GE’s retreat from lending to private-equity firms after a $12 billion deal on June 9 th to sell most of the US business to Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

GE said in May it expected to announce as much as $30 billion of financial-asset sales by June 30th as it works toward a $200 billion goal.

The European private-equity unit, which lines up financing for buyout firms, had been one of GE Capital’s top sale priorities, along with the US division and the health-care lending business, GE Capital CEO Keith Sherin said .

The company agreed to sell the bulk of its vehicle fleet-management business to Canada’s Element Financial for $6.9 billion, according to a statement on Monday.

- Bloomberg