GE Will Buy Borg-Warner Unit

General Electric Co. has signed a definitive agreement to buy Borg-Warner Corp.’s chemical business for $2.31 billion in cash, the companies announced today.

The deal will swell the size of one of GE’s fastest-growing businesses while helping Borg-Warner pay off the massive debt it took on when it went private last year in a leveraged buyout to avoid a takeover by GAF Corp. The Borg-Warner chemical business, headquartered in Parkersburg, W.Va., had sales of $1.25 billion in 1987. It is the worldwide leader in resins for a kind of plastic, ABS, that is widely used as a substitute for metal or glass.