JARDINE group is to sell its 50 per cent interest in local leasing and personal loan firm United Merchants Finance (UMF) to its partner General Electric Capital Corp (GECC) for US$140 million.
Jardine Fleming, the Jardine group's joint venture financial firm, will then form another a competing venture in partnership with Jardine Pacific.
The sale will bring to an end a two-year partnership between Jardine and GECC, the finance arm of United States engineering and manufacturing giant.
The deal did not represent a failed marriage, Jardine Pacific company secretary Neil McNamara said: 'GE has its views on developing businesses, we have ours. We parted as friends.' Mr McNamara said that GE approached Jardine about the deal and made an offer under a buy-out clause in the original deal which linked the parent companies. 'They want to use UMF as their foothold into Asia,' he said.
GECC invested in UMF after Barclays Bank of Britain withdrew from the venture. The 50 per cent original stake cost the Americans US$25 million in 1992.
Jardine Pacific owns 34 per cent of UMF while subsidiary Jardine International Motors holds the balance of the stake.