Report: General Electric plans to spin off consumer finance business with possible IPO + MORE Aug 30th

BEIJING, China – Chinese state-owned oil producer Sinopec has expanded its Middle East presence with the $3.1 billion purchase of a stake in an Egyptian oil and gas production operation.
U.S.-based Apache Corp. said Friday it will sell a 33 per cent stake in its Egypt operation to Sinopec as the first step in forming a global partnership to pursue oil and gas projects.
China’s state-owned oil industry, flush with cash from the country’s economic boom, is buying minority stakes or outright control of oil and gas fields in the Middle East and elsewhere to profit from future global demand.
Some of those projects are in areas such as southern Iraq that Western oil companies consider too dangerous or in politically shunned nations such as Sudan.
Apache said the latest sale includes oil and gas production assets in Egypt’s Western Desert. It said the remote, unpopulated area has not been affected by political developments in Egypt.
Apache’s Egyptian operations produced about 100,000 barrels of oil and 354 million cubic feet of natural gas per day in 2012, according to the company…

GENEVA – The new acting chairman of the Zurich Insurance Group says the company’s board will investigate whether undue pressure was put on the company’s chief financial officer before he apparently killed himself.
Tom de Swaan says CFO Pierre Wauthier, who was found dead earlier this week, left a note about his relationship with chairman Josef Ackermann.
Ackermann, a former CEO of Deutsche Bank, resigned abruptly Thursday saying Wauthier’s family had levelled accusations against him that could hurt the company.
De Swaan did not disclose further details about the note, but he told investors and analysts Friday that because of its content and Wauthier’s apparent suicide “the board sees it as its prime responsibility to look into the question as to whether there was undue pressure placed on our CFO.”
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NEW DELHI – India on Friday assured foreign investors it is not contemplating capital controls as a step to stabilize the falling Indian rupee.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told India’s Parliament that the rupee’s sudden decline was a shock, but his government will not address by it imposing capital controls or by reversing economic reforms.
India’s stock market has dropped more than 10 per cent in the past three months and the rupee has lost a sixth of its value against the dollar this year. Much of the currency’s fall has been in the past month.
Singh said the rupee’s weakness largely stems from India’s large current account deficit, caused by huge imports of gold and higher costs of crude oil and coal imports.
The government has raised gold taxes and hiked deposit rates to combat the outflow of money. It also put new limits on the amount of money Indian companies and individuals can send abroad, sparking concerns such controls would be extended to foreigners with investments in India…

A published report says General Electric plans to spin off the consumer lending business of its finance arm with an initial public offering of stock that could come early next year.
The Wall Street Journal also says the Fairfield, Conn., conglomerate is considering smaller spinoffs or asset sales, but it has started preliminary work on the IPO. The paper cites unnamed sources it says are familiar with the matter.
The consumer finance business provides store credit cards for retailers like Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
Aside from its finance business, GE sells a wide variety of industrial equipment and appliances around the world. This includes jet engines, medical diagnostic equipment, oil and gas drilling equipment and washing machines.
GE representatives did not immediately return calls from The Associated Press seeking comment.
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