Dutch insurance company Aegon will sell most of the commercial lending business of its Transamerica Finance Corp to a division of General Electric Company for $5.4 billion and cut its debt.
Aegon, like many of its rivals forced by prolonged weak markets to boost its capital base, has long been trying to sell TFC operations, which it identifies as non-core.
The Dutch group, one of the world's top 10 insurers and one of the top five in the United States, will sell most of TFC's commercial lending activities to GE Commercial Finance, and will use $1 billion of the net proceeds to repay outstanding debt.
Analysts said the deal was positive for Aegon as it would boost the group's equity position and could see its debt ratings raised by agencies. Aegon's shares rose as much as six percent.
GE Commercial Finance will get $8.5 billion of managed assets, including units active in leasing and commercial loans for equipment and real estate, to add to its current $200 billion asset portfolio. The units being sold employ around 1,700 people.
The price tag includes the repayment of $3.8 billion of TFC's debt, of which $2.4 billion is owed to Aegon, whose strategy is to focus on life insurance, pensions and related investment products.
Aegon - which acquired TFC as part of its $9.7 billion purchase of San Francisco-based Transamerica Corp in 1999 - will keep $2.1 billion in TFC assets.
The purchase of Transamerica Corp swelled Aegon's debt, which was $20 billion at the end of March.