News Release

GE to Sell Corporate Aircraft Financing Portfolio to Global Jet Capital

2015-072
  • Sale Reinforces Interest in GE Capital Assets from Wide Variety of Buyers
  • Total Deals Announced To Date Reaches $97 Billion

 

FAIRFIELD, Conn. - GE [NYSE:GE] announced today that it has reached an agreement to sell its fixed-wing Corporate Aircraft financing portfolio in the Americas to Global Jet Capital, a provider of financing solutions for the private aircraft market.

“We are excited to sell our Corporate Air portfolio to Global Jet Capital, an up-and-coming player in the corporate aircraft space,” said Keith Sherin, GE Capital chairman and CEO.

The Corporate Air portfolio includes loans and leases as well as more than 300 fixed-wing aircraft across the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Latin America. Global Jet Capital will also retain a team of experienced GE employees who have been dedicated to this business.

“Global Jet Capital is a well-backed private equity player eager to expand its corporate aircraft portfolio,” Sherin said. “Their resources will provide tremendous value to the portfolio and greatly benefit our customers.”

As previously announced, GE is embarking on a strategy to focus on its high-value industrial businesses and is selling most GE Capital assets. GE and its Board of Directors have determined that market conditions are favorable to pursue these dispositions. GE will retain the financing businesses that directly relate to GE’s industrial businesses including GE Capital Aviation Services which primarily finances commercial aircraft.

With this transaction of approximately $2.5 billion in ending net investment (ENI), GE Capital has announced sales of about $97 billion year-to-date. When completed, the transaction will contribute approximately $0.3 billion of capital to the overall target of approximately $35 billion of dividends expected to GE under this plan (subject to regulatory approval).

The transaction is expected to close in stages over the next several months, subject to customary regulatory and other approvals.

Sherin added, “Today’s announcement is another testament to the speed and value we are delivering as we execute on our strategy to sell most of the assets of GE Capital.”

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC provided financial advice to GE and Shearman & Sterling LLP provided legal advice.

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About GE
GE (NYSE: GE) is the world’s Digital Industrial Company, transforming industry with software-defined machines and solutions that are connected, responsive and predictive. GE is organized around a global exchange of knowledge, the "GE Store," through which each business shares and accesses the same technology, markets, structure and intellect. Each invention further fuels innovation and application across our industrial sectors. With people, services, technology and scale, GE delivers better outcomes for customers by speaking the language of industry. www.ge.com

 

GE’s Investor Relations website at www.ge.com/investor and our corporate blog at www.gereports.com, as well as GE’s Facebook page and Twitter accounts, including @GE_Reports, contain a significant amount of information about GE, including financial and other information for investors. GE encourages investors to visit these websites from time to time, as information is updated and new information is posted.

About Global Jet Capital
Global Jet Capital is a financial services company providing financing solutions for the private aircraft market. The business is capitalized by world-class private investors with expertise in the global aviation industry: AE Industrial Partners, The Carlyle Group and GSO Capital Partners, a Blackstone company, in partnership with Franklin Square Capital Partners. We offer a management team with expertise in financing, asset management, acquisition, marketing, lease administration and product support that understands the intricacies of the private aircraft market. Global Jet Capital serves virtually all jurisdictions and has the capital and expertise to meet the needs of the global private aircraft market, with flexibility and speed.

 

Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
This document contains "forward-looking statements" – that is, statements related to future, not past, events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address our expected future business and financial performance and financial condition, and often contain words such as "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "believe," "seek," "see," "will," "would," or "target." Forward-looking statements by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain, such as statements about our announced plan to reduce the size of our financial services businesses, including expected cash and non-cash charges associated with this plan; expected income; earnings per share; revenues; organic growth; margins; cost structure; restructuring charges; cash flows; return on capital; capital expenditures, capital allocation or capital structure; dividends; and the split between Industrial and GE Capital earnings. For us, particular uncertainties that could cause our actual results to be materially different than those expressed in our forward-looking statements include: obtaining (or the timing of obtaining) any required regulatory reviews or approvals or any other consents or approvals associated with our announced plan to reduce the size of our financial services businesses; our ability to complete incremental asset sales as part of that plan in a timely manner (or at all) and at the prices we have assumed; changes in law, economic and financial conditions, including interest and exchange rate volatility, commodity and equity prices and the value of financial assets, including the impact of these conditions on our ability to sell or the value of incremental assets to be sold as part of our announced plan to reduce the size of our financial services businesses as well as other aspects of that plan; the impact of conditions in the financial and credit markets on the availability and cost of GECC's funding, and GECC's exposure to counterparties; the impact of conditions in the housing market and unemployment rates on the level of commercial and consumer credit defaults; pending and future mortgage loan repurchase claims and other litigation claims in connection with WMC, which may affect our estimates of liability, including possible loss estimates; our ability to maintain our current credit rating and the impact on our funding costs and competitive position if we do not do so; the adequacy of our cash flows and earnings and other conditions which may affect our ability to pay our quarterly dividend at the planned level or to repurchase shares at planned levels; GECC's ability to pay dividends to GE at the planned level, which may be affected by GECC's cash flows and earnings, financial services regulation and oversight, and other factors; our ability to convert pre-order commitments/wins into orders; the price we realize on orders since commitments/wins are stated at list prices; customer actions or developments such as early aircraft retirements or reduced energy demand and other factors that may affect the level of demand and financial performance of the major industries and customers we serve; the effectiveness of our risk management framework; the impact of regulation and regulatory, investigative and legal proceedings and legal compliance risks, including the impact of financial services regulation and litigation; adverse market conditions, timing of and ability to obtain required bank regulatory approvals, or other factors relating to us or Synchrony Financial that could prevent us from completing the Synchrony Financial split-off as planned; our capital allocation plans, as such plans may change including with respect to the timing and size of share repurchases, acquisitions, joint ventures, dispositions and other strategic actions; our success in completing, including obtaining regulatory approvals for, announced transactions, such as the proposed transactions and alliances with Alstom, Appliances and our announced plan to reduce the size of our financial services businesses, and our ability to realize anticipated earnings and savings; our success in integrating acquired businesses and operating joint ventures; the impact of potential information technology or data security breaches; and the other factors that are described in "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2014. These or other uncertainties may cause our actual future results to be materially different than those expressed in our forward-looking statements. We do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements.

 

This document includes certain forward-looking projected financial information that is based on current estimates and forecasts. Actual results could differ materially.

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Contacts

 

Investor:
Matt Cribbins, +1 203-373-2424
matthewg.cribbins@ge.com
or
Media:
GE Capital:
Ned Reynolds, +1 203-840-5075
ned.reynolds@ge.com
or
GE:
Seth Martin, +1 203-572-3567
seth.martin@ge.com
or
Global Jet Capital:
Aimee Talbert Nardini, +1 561-212-1594
atalbertnardini@globaljetcapital.com

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