Capital One and Apollo line up bids for GE healthcare lender

Capital One Financial Corp and Apollo Global Management have made offers for General Electric Co's healthcare finance unit, which could fetch more than $11 billion, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Ares Management LP and Ventas Inc also bid for the unit, which offers mortgages and business loans to nursing homes and other healthcare providers, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private.

Initial bids were made by June 18, with the next round of offers this month. GE is working with JPMorgan Chase & Co on the sale and may select a buyer by the end of July, they said.

GE, based in Fairfield, Connecticut, the United States, is selling a number of lending businesses with about $200 billion in assets as it breaks up GE Capital, its sprawling financial-services arm, to focus on manufacturing.

The company plans to sell its healthcare and foreign buyout-lending arms after agreeing to sell most of its US buyout-lending unit to Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Keith Sherin, CEO of GE Capital, said in an interview last month.

"We're going to pick up the pace in the third quarter," he said. "We have a tremendous amount of activity going on in the marketplace. The bulk of the US is in the market and we have quite a bit of western Europe in the market.

The company was due to announce $20 billion to $30 billion in additional asset sales in the quarter ending on June 30, on top of a $26.5 billion real estate disposal in April. But it failed to make the announcement. Representatives for GE and JPMorgan declined to comment. Representatives for Capital One, Ventas, Apollo and Ares didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

GE has already reached a deal to shed the bulk of its vehicle fleet-management business. Canada's Element Financial Corp bought the US, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand operations for $6.9 billion.

"So far the valuations are in line with our planning," Sherin said. "We've got very active bidding processes and we're pleased with the outcome."