GE Capital Taking Bids for Lending Unit

General Electric Co., which has been eliminating businesses with low growth, plans to sell a lending unit of its GE Capital arm for as much as $150 million by the end of the year, said people familiar with the matter.

The unit makes loans to small businesses and includes assets of Heller Financial Inc., which GE bought for $5.3 billion in 2001. The loans being sold are partly guaranteed by the federal Small Business Administration and have a face value of $3 billion, the people said.

GE, which began an auction for the small-business lending unit this month, has been selling assets as part of Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt’s effort to bolster GE Capital, the financing unit that provides 45% of the company’s profit.