General Electric formally disclosed its plans to hold an initial public offering of its North American retail finance unit on Friday, as part of an effort to shrink its enormous finance arm.
G.E. said in a filing that it planned to sell as much as 20 percent of the unit in the stock sale. The conglomerate plans to file a prospectus in the first three months of next year, with the offering being completed later that year.
Then in 2015, the company plans to distribute the remainder of its holdings in the retail finance unit to its shareholders in exchange for G.E. common shares. But it may also sell its interests in the subsidiary.
The move is meant to help the conglomerate shrink its enormous finance arm, GE Capital, which ran into trouble during the financial crisis because of its huge holdings in real estate loans. The goal has been to transform it into a smaller, stable industrial lending business.
The business has steadily shrunk over recent years, in part through divestitures of smaller operations.
People briefed on the matter have previously said that JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs were advising G.E. on the effort and would likely run the I.P.O.
