GE Money departing from US, UK credit card mkts; to pursue growth in India

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March 29 : General Electric Co is divesting consumer-finance businesses in the UK and Germany and selling its US corporate credit-card unit to concentrate on higher-margin areas and developing markets, GE Money’s chief executive said.

“This is a thoughtful effort to really, aggressively look at where we make money, where we don’t and where we should have capital redeployed,” William Cary, who was promoted to lead the consumer-lending unit on February 7, said in a telephone interview from London.

London-based GE Money is departing from slowing or stalled credit card markets such as those in the US and UK to focus on developing markets like Poland and India, Cary said. The company also is looking to western markets including France where its mix of products yields higher growth, he said.

GE recently agreed to sell its corporate charge card unit to American Express for $1.1 billion. It also agreed to swap GE Money units in Germany and the UK to Spain’s Banco Santander SA in exchange for Italian commercial lender Interbanca, which is valued at 1 billion euros ($1.58 billion).

GE Money, the world’s biggest issuer of store-branded credit cards, last year sold its US subprime unit, WMC mortgage, and put its Japanese consumer unit on the block. General Electric chief executive officer Jeffrey Immelt is seeking a partnership or sale of the US private label unit as he shifts up to $50 billion in assets to higher returns and lower risks of default.

“It’s not an exit from consumer finance, it’s part of a really deliberate strategy that comes from a pretty clear agreement with Jeff,” Cary, 48, said. GE Money competes with the commercial-finance division for capital to be invested in higher-return areas.

GE Money, as it was exiting WMC last year, agreed to buy part of

UniCredit SpA’s Bank BPH unit in Poland for 625 million euros ($893 million). In September, GE Money said it would invest $200 million in India by 2011.