GE Files Plan to Sell Part of Insurance Unit in IPO

General Electric Co. on Tuesday filed with U.S. regulators to sell part of its Genworth Financial insurance unit in what is expected to be one of the largest initial public stock offerings of the year.

GE said the offering would be for about 30% of its life and mortgage insurance businesses, which were combined as Genworth Financial.

The insurance businesses earned a total of $764 million in the first nine months of last year and had a book value of about $10 billion at the end of September, GE said in its IPO filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Analysts said the IPO probably would fetch several billion dollars. GE said it expected to complete the offering by July.

The planned IPO, first announced in November, comes as GE moves to scale down its insurance operations as it tries to focus on faster-growing businesses to attain its goal of double-digit profit growth in 2005. The company has warned investors that it expects profit this year to be flat with 2003 results.

GE named Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. as joint underwriters of the stock offering.

Michael Fraizer, a senior vice president at GE, would serve as chairman, president and chief executive of Richmond, Va.-based Genworth. GE did not offer a price range or projected share-offering amount.

GE shares rose 1 cent to $33.36 on the New York Stock Exchange.