General Electric is in early-stage talks with Wells Fargo regarding the sale of the company’s entire $74 billion U.S. commercial lending and leasing portfolio to the bank.
Reuters reported the story Monday, citing unnamed sources close to the talks, which started last week. Other parties also may hold talks with the company, which announced April 10 that it would sell its entire $165 billion middle-market lending arm.
The talks emphasize GE’s urgency to divest its GE Capital business, freeing the company from the financial regulatory pressures that come with being labeled as an institution “too big to fail.”
In another sign of urgency, GE announced earlier this month that it agreed to sell most of the real estate assets of GE Capital to Blackstone Group and Wells Fargo for $23 billion, a deal which took less than four weeks to negotiate.
GE has hired JPMorgan Chase to coordinate the overall finance disposition while bringing in more banks to explore the piecemeal sale of U.S. CLL, according to the report.
