Boston, MA 03/13/2014 (wallstreetpr) – General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) plan to exit the retail finance business seems to be heating up after its credit card unit filed up for an initial public offering. The plans had been announced back in November, as GE plans to spin off the business that is value to be worth between $16 billion and $18 billion.
The spinoff will allow General Electric to focus on its industrial divisions that have proved to be more lucrative in the recent past especially after the economic downturn. General Electric sees this as a great opportunity of being in a position to compete with its fierce rivals, Honeywell international and united technologies who boost of smaller financial arms.
General Electric plans to offload up to 20% of its credit card business with a view of completely exiting the financial business in 2015. The business as a result of the IPO will operate under the name Synchrony financial. The business is considered as the largest provider of private label credit card in the US. This is essentially based on its purchase volume as well as receivables.
Reasons Behind The IPO
GE capital which is General Electric’s financial business used to contribute nearly half of the company’s profit before the economic meltdown of 2008. Rising funding costs during the economic meltdown nearly cost the company its existence and has consequently not picked up, thus the reason behind the proposed full disposal.
Synchrony financial has already filed a $100 million placeholder with the US Securities and exchange commission with General Electric expecting to complete the IPO as of the end of the year. Goldman Sachs& Co, JPMorgan, Citigroup as well as Morgan Stanley have been chosen as the underwriters for the proposed initial public offering.
General Electric is currently planning on building its budding subsea oil and gas business that it considers to hold a potential of revolutionizing the industry. This is not a new field for the company considering it has sold extraction and processing equipment for over 40 years. General Electric has built its fortunes in this industry from a low of $1 billion in 1994 to a high of $20 billion as of 2013, mainly as a result of numerous acquisitions.
