AION supports buyout of GE's India commercial lending business

Along with AION, the other members of the consortium are Pramod Bhasin, formerly the head of GE Capital in India and Asia, and Anil Chawla, who was previously head of commercial business operations at GE Capital India, according to a release. The transaction represents about $400 million in ending net investment.

Both GE Capital Services India and GE Money Financial Services, and their employees, will be transferred to the consortium. The two companies provide auto leasing, healthcare financing and corporate lending and leasing services.

Since last year GE has been seeking to sell most GE Capital assets, as it focuses on its industrial businesses and tries to reduce the share of its revenues derived from financial services from 42% in 2014 to 25%. So far it claims to have signed agreements to sell $158 billion in assets and closed $136 billion of those sales; it plans to sell $200 billion in GE Capital assets worldwide by the end of 2016.

In March, GE agreed to sell its Australia and New Zealand consumer lending unit to a consortium including KKR, Värde Partners and Deutsche Bank for an enterprise valuation of A$8.2 billion ($6.3 billion). It later its commercial lending and leasing portfolios in the same country to Sankaty Advisors in a deal reportedly worth about A$1.9 billion. GE also sold its Japan leasing unit to Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group for JPY575 billion ($4.8 billion).

AION was formed through a joint venture between ICICI Venture and Apollo Global Management to pursue operations in special situations such as financial restructuring, recapitalization, leveraged buyouts and promoter financings. The GP closed its first fund in 2014 at $825 million.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Financials
• Buyouts
• Trade sale
• India