Standard Chartered buys Singapore's GE Money

24th Jan 2011 07:03

Standard Chartered has agreed to buy Singapore-based car and personal loans business GE Money for an undisclosed sum.The Asia-focused bank expects to complete the purchase of the GE Capital subsidiary, itself part of the consumer finance services unit of General Electric, sometime during the first quarter.Gross assets of the underlying business being acquired were S$2.35bn £1.15bn) at the end of 2009. Though no financial details have been disclosed, talk is that GE, which is selling non-core assets following the financial crisis, will get as much as S$900m (£439m) for the unit. In July last year, Standard bought GE Commercial Financing, a specialist in SME factoring and hire purchase financing in Singapore