GE Capital has bolstered its Italian leasing arm with the
long-awaited acquisition of Interbanca.
The Italian merchant bank’s large-scale leasing and factoring
arms, which are mainly focused on the SME sector, represent an
important addition to GE Capital’s existing Italian leasing
business, comprised of assets valued at €740 million.
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The deal, which was completed last month, is part of an
agreement which involves Spanish bank Santander swapping Interbanca
for GE Money’s businesses in Germany, Austria and Finland; its
credit card and auto businesses in the UK; and its credit card
business in Ireland.
Last March, GE Capital, which has 200 staff in its Italian
leasing operations, estimated each of the entities sold are valued
at around €1 billion.
Discussions are continuing as to whether Interbanca will be
rebranded as GE Capital, the finance arm of General Electric.
Commenting on the acquisition of the Italian corporate bank,
Richard Laxer, chief executive of GE Capital for the EMEA region,
defined it as “a major step in our European financial services
development strategy”.
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By GlobalDataLaxer added: “Given its experience, Interbanca is for GE a
privileged growth platform in a very important European financial
market.”
GE Capital said it intends to support the bank’s further
development, to give Italian firms the “opportunity to benefit from
GE’s customer focus, along with an extended product offering”.
Paolo Breghieri, newly appointed CEO at Interbanca, added that
the focus of the bank on small and medium-sized companies will not
change, and that Interbanca will become the “growth engine for GE’s
financial services operations in Italy”.
Breghieri added: “We have long been looking for a financial
platform to express our know-how.
“At a time when small and medium-sized enterprises are suffering
for the credit squeeze, I believe that benefiting from a
triple-A-rated company is a positive opportunity.”
The acquisition of Interbanca is the second-largest acquisition
of GE in Italy after Nuovo Pignone, a supplier of machinery and
equipment for the oil industry, which is now part of GE’s oil and
gas division.
