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The
deal is part of GE's plan to sell off the about $200 billion
worth of assets of its finance arm, GE Capital, as the U.S.
conglomerate moves away from finance to focus on manufacturing
industrial equipment.
Earlier this month, the company said it expected its GE Capital
exit plan to be largely complete by end-2016.
Under the deal, SMFG will acquire GE's commercial lending and
leasing business in Japan, including capital finance, fleet
service and vendor finance, whose total assets are worth 510
billion yen ($4.2 billion), SMFG said.
The deal is expected to close in April 2016, the two companies
said.
In June, SMFG agreed to buy GE's European private equity
financing business for about $2.2 billion.
SMFG, Japan's third-largest lender by assets, has been
aggressively expanding beyond traditional banking in Japan to
offset tepid lending demand and falling interest margins.
In 2012, a consortium led by SMFG bought the aircraft-leasing
business of Royal Bank of Scotland for $7.3 billion.
It has also spent a total of $1.5 billion over the past two
years to buy 40 percent of Indonesian lender PT Bank Tabungan
Pensiunan Nasional Tbk (BTPN).
(Reporting by Taiga Uranaka; Editing by Miral Fahmy)
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