5 Feb 2009

Hundreds of jobs to go in GE Capital merger

6:37 am on 5 February 2009

GE Capital Australia & New Zealand announced on Wednesday it will merge its two main finance businesses, with the loss of 400 jobs.

The company will merge its GE Money and GE Commercial Finance divisions.

GE Capital said in a statement it would cut the jobs during 2009 to reduce duplicated positions and better compete with local banks.

It did not say how many positions would be lost in New Zealand.

The cuts are in addition to 335 job cuts announced in October, which resulted in 80 positions lost in New Zealand.

The latest job cuts will leave about 4,600 employees at GE Capital, which is part of the General Electric Company, in New Zealand and Australia.

The local operations, which are the third biggest for GE Capital behind the United States and United Kingdom, will continue to provide credit cards, personal loans, fleet management and leasing, commercial real estate finance and aircraft leasing.

GE Capital has $NZ54 billion of assets in Australia and New Zealand, with three million customers and said it increased net income by 16.8% in 2008.