CORPORATE MOVES
GE doesn’t plan to sell unit
General Electric Co. is distancing itself from a report that it might consider spinning off its finance unit, a move that would eliminate the source of half its profit.
Dow Jones reported that Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt told business leaders in Sydney, Australia, that he’d “never say never” about a spinoff of GE Capital Corp., which provided 50 percent of its parent’s profit last year. Immelt never implied a spinoff was under consideration, said Russell Wilkerson, a GE spokesman.
Immelt has been shrinking GE Capital since the financial crisis, when credit losses at the unit mounted and its access to money markets withered. Investment, a measure of the division’s assets, shrank to $419 billion as of Dec. 31, an 18 percent decline since the beginning of 2009, GE has said. GE Capital had 2012 profit of $7.4 billion, compared with its parent’s $14.7 billion from continuing operations, the company said in January.
— Bloomberg News