Plutus Financials, a joint venture between Aion Capital Partners, Pramod Bhasin and Anil Chawla, said it had acquired the commercial lending business of GE Capital in India for an undisclosed amount.
According to financial market sources, the deal is valued at $350 million.
The businesses currently include automobile leasing, healthcare financing and corporate lending & leasing.
"We would like to use new technologies to penetrate deeper into Indian markets to build consumer finance besides providing lending to small and medium enterprises," said Bhasin, who expects to close the deal in eight months, after all due approvals.
Pramod Bhasin was formerly the head of GE Capital in India and Asia, having earlier worked with it in the US.
He started GE Capital's businesses in India. Pramod is also considered a pioneer of the business process outsourcing sector in India, having started GE Capital International Services. It subsequently became Genpact, where he was president and chief executive officer until 2011.
Chawla was head of the commercial business operations of GE Capital India. Later, he helped DE Shaw build its financial services business in India.
AION is a strategic partnership between affiliates of ICICI Venture and Apollo Global Management. It is currently one of the largest private equity funds focused on investing in India, with approximately $825 million in committed capital.
In India, GE's financial services business is spread across a joint venture with State Bank of India for credit cards, and consumer finance through GE Money, besides GE Capital Services that is into commercial finance.
Three years ago, PE-backed Magma Fincorp had acquired GE's housing finance business in the country. GE has been exiting its financial services business globally to refocus on its core industrial manufacturing space.
The conglomerate has been under pressure to hive off its profitable but risky financial services assets for several years.
