General Electric to sell Australian consumer-lending business for $6.26 bn

General Electric today agreed to sell its GE Capital consumer-lending operation in Australia and New Zealand to a consortium led by private equity giant KKR in a deal valued at around A$8.2 billion ($6.26 billion), making it one of the biggest deals in the Asia-Pacific region so far this year.

The consortium includes Minneapolis-based alternate investment management firm Varde Partners and DeutscheBank.

The consortium outbid other suitors, including three rival groups, TPG, Apollo Global Management and Macquarie Group.

GE Capital provides personal loans and credit cards to about 3 million consumers in Australia and New Zealand, along with interest free retail finance for major retailers.

The unit provides GE-branded credit cards and personal loans, has about A$7 billion of gross assets, people with knowledge of the matter said in December, Bloomberg reported.

It added, the transaction adds to the $7.7 billion in assets sold by GE in the past year.

The deal does not include GE's commercial financing business, which provides loans to mid-sized businesses in Australia and New Zealand.

Jeff Immelt, GE chief executive, has said he wants 25 per cent or less of the group's earnings to come from financial services, compared to 42 per cent last year, Financial Times reported.

"This transaction allows us to focus on our strategy to be the world's premier infrastructure technology company with a speciality commercial financial services business," said, Geoff Culbert, GE Australia and New Zealand president and CEO.

GE had earlier said that it planned to exit consumer finance amid investors pressure to reduce its massive banking business and focus on industrial businesses like aircraft engines, power turbines and medical scanners.

Since the 2008 global financial meltdown, GE has exited or pared back other lending units, including consumer businesses in Japan, Turkey, the Nordic region, Eastern Europe and the UK.

Last year, it sold shares in its credit-card and retail-payment business in North America, which it plans to spin it off this year.