Wells Fargo to Buy $32B in GE Assets
Wells Fargo is purchasing $32B in assets from General Electric—and 3,000 employees—as the industrial company withdraws from financial services. Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse were the bankers for GE.
The deal is slated to close in Q1 2016 and would allow about $4.2B in capital to return to its parent, GE says. Wells Fargo has been one of the largest buyers of GE assets, purchasing its real estate assets earlier this year.
The sale will include commercial distribution and vendor-finance units as well as part of the corporate finance business, Wells Fargo said Tuesday. About 90% of the loan and lease portfolios are US or Canada-based.
This agreement is GE's biggest divestiture since April's announcement of the unloading of $200B in financial assets. So far, it's signed more than $126B in transactions and expects to finish the overhaul by the end of 2016. [Bloomberg]
