General Electric Co. intends to sell part of its Genworth Financial insurance unit in what is expected to be one of the largest initial public offerings of the year, according to securities filings

Risk & Insurance, March, 2004

[check] General Electric Co. intends to sell part of its Genworth Financial insurance unit in what is expected to be one of the largest initial public offerings of the year, according to securities filings. GE said the offering would be for about 30 percent of its life and mortgage insurance businesses, which were combined as Genworth Financial.

The combined businesses had a book value of about $10 billion at the end of September. It said it expected to complete the offering by the end of June. The planned IPO, which was first announced in November, comes as GE moves to scale down its insurance operations as it attempts to focus on faster-growing businesses to attain its goal of double-digit profit growth in 2005.