The unit which lends business property to industries has loans of about $5.4bn to small and mid-sized companies, which represents nearly 1% of GE Capital’s total assets, as reported by Reuters.
GE Capital Real Estate for North America president Alec Burger underlined the proposed sale as "consistent with our stated strategy to reduce the overall size of our real estate portfolio".
As per the goal defined and laid by GE’s chief executive Jeff Immelt, the firm’s finance arm was required to provide 40% of group profits and to reduce its "ending net investment" from $436bn to $425bn by the end of the year.
The company has also marked its real estate lending, which represents nearly 10% of the division’s assets, and consumer finance as areas which could be curtailed.
EverBank received support from private equity groups Sageview Capital, New Mountain Capital and TP Group to seal not only the current deal but also many deals it has already completed.
The transition is expected to close by the end of December 2012, after obtaining approval from concerned financial authorities.
