The Commercial Lending and Leasing (CLL) arm of GE Capital has reported a profit of $568m (435m) for the third quarter of 2012, down 17% from $688m for the same period last year.
The company said the decline was driven by "continued pressure" in Europe including a $32m loss on one account and a loss of around $20m in Italy as well as by an 8% reduction in business assets.
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It reflects a 3% decrease in profit for the nine months to 30 September, down to $1,88bn compared to $1,94bn for the first three quarters of 2011.
Nonetheless, the company reported earnings for the whole of Europe were over $40m although the US remains the largest market with $545m earnings for the period.
Revenue for the CLL segment was $4.12bn, down 9% year-on-year from $4.51bn.
Profit was up for GE Capital as a whole with $1.68bn reported for the quarter compared to $1.52bn in 2011, and up 14% year-on-year for the nine months to the end of September to $5.59bn.
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By GlobalDataIn a webcast discussion of the financial statement, Keith Sherin, vice-chairman and chief financial officer of parent company General Electric (GE), said "The commercial volume is down about 5%. I think a bigger part of that is this; it is uncertainty. It is people not willing to spend until they have a more certain environment".
He added: "We are seeing a nice volume in the equipment side in the CLL business. But on the CapEx side I would say that has been soft."
