GE Commercial Finance will buy ING NV’s half of Heller GmbH, the German unit of their working-capital finance joint venture, NMB-Heller, the companies announced Wednesday.
In turn the Dutch company will buy GE’s half of NMB-Heller’s Dutch factoring business. The terms were not revealed.
ING will also take over GE Commercial Finance’s Belgian operations, the companies said. ING said full control of the Dutch and Belgian businesses will make it possible to integrate the Belgian activities with its wholesale banking unit.
NMB-Heller provides factoring services primarily to midsize corporate clients. It has been active in the financing market since 1967. The U.S. company and ING said they will continue their 50-50 joint venture in its international operations elsewhere as well as in part of the Dutch credit portfolio
The General Electric Co. division provides financing to the industrial and commercial sectors, including transportation services, aviation, and manufacturing. It is pushing to increase its market share in Germany and plans to use Heller GmbH to broaden its range of products and services.
GE Commercial Finance has five units offering commercial finance in Europe and over $10 billion of assets there. Its European clients include the cable and telephony provider NTL Inc. in the United Kingdom and Kabel Deutschland in Germany. Worldwide, GE Commercial Finance has over $217 billion of assets.
