GE Completes Sale of $5.8N UK Home Lending Portfolio

GE

announced today that it has completed the sale of a portfolio of first lien mortgage loans from its UK Home lending business, representing aggregate ending net investment (ENI) of approximately US$5.8 billion to an investment consortium made up of opportunistic funds managed by Blackstone, TPG Special Situations Partners (TSSP), and CarVal Investors. The loans have a face value, or customer servicing balance of US$5.9/£3.8 billion. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. "With today's closing, we have nearly reached our target goal of reducing GE Capital ending net investment by $100 billion this year," Sherin said. "The speed and value we have achieved is a testament to the hard work of our GE Capital teams around the world." As previously announced, GE is embarking on a strategy to focus on its high-value industrial businesses and is selling most GE Capital assets. GE and its Board of Directors have determined that current market conditions are favorable to pursue disposition of these assets. GE will retain the financing verticals that relate to GE's industrial businesses. "The closure of this transaction, following the announcement of a signed agreement on November 23, represents the sale of almost all our remaining UK mortgage business, which successfully provided financing for UK home owners," said Keith Sherin, GE Capital chairman and CEO. "We began this year with around $13 billion of ENI and with the completion of this transaction we have approximately US$0.4 billion of ENI remaining in our UK mortgage business. This is an important step as we continue to complete our sales with great execution." This transaction will contribute approximately US$0.4 billion of capital to the overall target of approximately US$35 billion of dividends expected to be paid to GE under this plan (subject to regulatory approval). In total, the combined sales of the UK Home Lending portfolios, including this transaction, will contribute nearly US$1 billion of capital to the target.