General Electric share price down, sells financial operations in Australia and New Zealand

General Electric Co announced on Monday it had agreed to sell its consumer-lending business in Australia and New Zealand to an investor group including Värde Partners and Deutsche bank.

The company said it would sell its financial service unit, which is part of GE Capital in Australia and New Zealand, to Värde Partners, KKR and Deutsche Bank in deal with an enterprise value of A$8.2 billion.

The unit being sold, has a customer base of more than 3 million, GE said in a statement, and is a long-standing partner to many of the major retailers in Australia & New Zealand, including Wesfarmers and Myer Holdings.

This is the latest of a series of moves from GE to reduces its presence in consumer finance as part of a larger plan to refocus its efforts towards its industrial operations, which generate around 70% of the companys overall revenue.

GE said that deal excludes its commercial financing business, which provides loans to mid-sized enterprises in those countries, and that the company would maintain its creditor relationship with “key” industries including oil and gas, energy, health care, aviation and mining.

Since the financial crisis in 2008, when GE Capital exposed to risk the entire company, the conglomerate has been slowly trimming down its world-wide banking business, including in countries like the U.K., Japan, Turkey and the Easter Europe region as well as the Nordic region.

Additionally, GE sold a stake in its North American consumer-lending business Synchrony Financial last year via an IPO, with the intention to spin it off completely later this year.

According to people with knowledge of the situation, three different groups, led by TPG, Apollo Global Management LLC and Macquarie Group Ltd respectively, also launched bid for GEs consumer-lending business.

“KKR is honored to be an owner of such a world-class franchise. We will leverage KKRs global and regional expertise and platform to create an exciting future for this business,” said Joseph Bae, managing partner for KKR Asia.

General Electric Co lost 1.42% on Friday and closed at $25.04 in New York, marking a one-year decrease of 1.18%. The company is valued at $252.09 billion. On Monday the stock slipped 0.04% to $25.03 during pre-market trading.

According to the Financial Times, the 14 analysts offering 12-month price targets for General Electric have a median target of $28.50, with a high estimate of $32.00 and a low estimate of $25.00. The median estimate represents a 13.82% increase from the last closing price.