New York, March 10 (EFE). The US General Electric Group confirmed on Wednesday the sale of its aircraft leasing business to Ireland’s AerCap and the future shutdown of GE Capital, the loan business that came close to bankruptcy during the 2008 financial crisis.
The operation, already in development by the Wall Street Journal, will involve the merger of GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS) with AerCap, which will create by far the largest aircraft leasing company in the world.
GECAS owns more than 1,600 aircraft and assets valued at an estimated $ 36 billion, while AerCap has a fleet of nearly 1,400 aircraft.
General Electric said in a statement that the agreement estimated the value of “GECAS” at more than 30 thousand million dollars, and that it would receive a cash compensation of 24 thousand million and 46% of the shares of the new company.
General Electric announced that it will use the proceeds from this sale to reduce its debt, and that once the operation closes, the remainder of the GE Capital subsidiary will be integrated into the core operations of the group.
GECAS is the most important part still in GE Capital, the large loan company of the American conglomerate, which became one of the most important businesses in the United States that was on the verge of bankruptcy during the financial crisis of 2008.
“Today marks GE’s transformation into a more focused, simpler, and robust industrial company,” CEO Lawrence Kolb said in a note.
In recent years, GE has sold numerous assets to pay off its debts and focus on its industrial operations.
The conglomerate returned to its net profit in 2020 with a net profit of $ 5,546 million, after losing $ 4,972 million in the previous year, despite a 16% drop in its total income.
General Electric shares have partially recovered recently after years of decline, but have fallen sharply this Wednesday after its recent announcements, which included a reduction in the number of its shares.
At the close of the session on Wall Street, their headlines were down 5.36%.
