HONG KONG: General Electric Co (GE) shed about a quarter of its stake in Bank of Ayudhya , Thailand's No.5 lender, under a global plan to offload non-core assets.
The US conglomerate has sold a 7.6 percent stake in the bank in a block trade to institutional investors, GE Capital, a unit of GE, said in a statement on Wednesday.
GE has been selling non-core businesses under Chief Executive Jeff Immelt, and the review of the Thai bank stake is part of the overall restructuring. Earlier, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters that GE offloaded a stake in Bank of Ayudhya for $466 million.
"GE Capital continues to review strategic options for its remaining interest in BAY," GE Capital said in the statement. After the sale, GE Capital owns a stake of about 25 percent in Bank of Ayudhya, the statement added.
GE agreed to buy a stake in Bank of Ayudhya in 2007, and in total invested 22.3 billion baht, or $626 million based on the then exchange rate.
The firm initially acquired a 25 percent stake in Bank of Ayudhya for 16.00 baht a share and subsequently raised the stake to nearly 33 percent.
GE sold the shares at 31.30 Thai baht per share, the source said on Wednesday, declining to be identified as the details of the sale were not public yet. That represents a 5.9 percent discount to the stock's closing price on Tuesday.
With Bank of Ayudhya shares trading at 35.25 baht, GE has more than doubled the value of its investment.
Bank of Ayudhya could not be immediately reached for comment.
The US conglomerate, which has a market capitalisation of $236 billion, had hired Morgan Stanley to undertake a strategic review of its share in Bank of Ayudhya.
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