OREANDA-NEWS. GE (NYSE: GE) announced today that it has completed the sale of its Commercial Lending and Leasing business in India to a consortium of former GE Capital executives led by Pramod Bhasin and Anil Chawla and backed by AION Capital Partners.  The transaction represents ending net investment (ENI) of approximately $0.4 billion as of the end of the second quarter of 2016.

“We’re pleased to complete the sale of our commercial finance business in India to a well-regarded ownership team,” said Rich Laxer, GE Capital CEO. “As we continue to execute on our strategy to significantly reduce the size of GE Capital, we wish our commercial finance employees in India the very best.” 

GE continues to be a long-term player in India with over 18,500 employees across the transportation, aviation, energy, healthcare and financial services sectors, and is committed to partnering with India in its growth and development.

As previously announced, GE is focusing on its high-value industrial businesses and is selling most of GE Capital’s assets. GE will retain the financing verticals that relate directly to GE’s industrial businesses. Since the April 2015 announcement, GE Capital has signed agreements for the sale of approximately US$192 billion of businesses and has closed approximately US$170 billion of those transactions. GE Capital plans to have largely completed the process of selling approximately $200 billion of businesses by the end of 2016 and believes it is on track to deliver approximately US$35 billion of dividends to GE under this plan.  

About The AION Fund

The AION Fund, with approximately $825 million in committed capital, was established through a strategic partnership between affiliates of ICICI Venture and Apollo Global Management, LLC. It is currently one of the largest private equity funds focused on investing in India. AION has partnered with former GE Capital executives Pramod Bhasin and Anil Chawla for the acquisition. Bhasin was formerly the Head of GE Capital in India and Asia. Chawla was the head of the Commercial business operations of GE Capital India.

About GE

GE (NYSE: GE) is the world’s Digital Industrial Company, transforming industry with software-defined machines and solutions that are connected, responsive and predictive. GE is organized around a global exchange of knowledge, the "GE Store," through which each business shares and accesses the same technology, markets, structure and intellect. Each invention further fuels innovation and application across our industrial sectors. With people, services, technology and scale, GE delivers better outcomes for customers by speaking the language of industry.