Boston, MA 02/03/2014 (wallstreetpr) – General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) is planning for what is rumored to be one of the largest Initial Public Offers (IPO) since Facebook’s 16.1 billion offing in the next few months for its consumer finance unit. General Electric intends to let go 20% of its North America retail Finance unit which is valued to be worth $20B. GE has hired Goldman and JPMorgan to foresee the IPO of which it expects to fetch around $4B. The remaining 80% portion will be spun to shareholders in 2015. Back in November, GE had announced plans to spin off its credit card business as it tries to limit its exposure to financial businesses.
GE Capital Consumer Business
General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) capital consumer business is considered the second largest in terms of assets and returns on profits. This business commands 32% worth of assets and contributed a total of 46% of profits in 2013. GE is letting go the entire consumer business in the effort of reducing its contribution to assets and net income. The $4B that it expects to fetch from the offing will be more than double the amount that Twitter raised in November which was in the region of $1.8 billion.
GE on a recovery Path
The conglomerate saw its profits rise in the fourth quarter increase by 5% heavily bolstered by the growth of its industrial business and the improvement of the US economy. The company has resorted to relying on products like oil pumps, jet engines and home appliances instead of the highly risky financial businesses. General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) net earnings for the fourth quarter grew to $4.2 billion compared to $4.01 recorded the same quarter a year ago. Its quarterly earnings grew by 3% to hit the $40.38 billion mark with its industrial business contributing a total of $29.95 billion
General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) closed trading on January 31, 2014 at $25.13 a drop of 1.45%
