Boeing May Sell Some Assets to GE

General Electric Co. may buy Boeing Co.’s portfolio of commercial loans and leases for about $2 billion as the plane maker’s Boeing Capital Corp. unit focuses on financing aircraft, people familiar with the discussions said Wednesday.

The companies are still in negotiations over the $2.3 billion in assets and may announce an agreement later this week, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Included are leases and loans for steel processing and mining equipment, printing presses, machine tools and corporate jets.

Boeing Chief Executive Harry Stonecipher said at an investor conference in February that the Chicago-based company would sell or wind down its non-aerospace financial assets. GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt is expanding the GE Commercial Finance unit, which has more than $220 billion in assets.

The sale would mark a step ending Boeing’s plans to enter non-aerospace markets.

“It’s another diversification initiative that didn’t quite work out as planned” for Boeing, said Richard Aboulafia, vice president of Teal Group in Fairfax, Va. “The name of the game these days is to get risk off your books. The finance unit needs to be used just to reinforce the position of your core product.”

Shares of Fairfield, Conn.-based GE rose 15 cents to $30.40. Boeing gained 40 cents to $43.58. Both stocks are traded on the New York Stock Exchange.