OREANDA-NEWS. November 16, 2015. GE (NYSE: GE) today announced the final exchange ratio in connection with its previously announced offer to exchange GE common stock for common stock of Synchrony Financial (NYSE: SYF) presently owned by GE.
 
For each share of GE common stock that is validly tendered and not withdrawn by shareholders and that is accepted by GE pursuant to the exchange offer, GE will deliver 1.0505 shares of Synchrony common stock to or at the direction of any such tendering holder. Because the exchange offer will be subject to proration if the exchange offer is oversubscribed, the number of shares of GE common stock that GE accepts in the exchange offer may be less than the number of shares tendered by shareholders.

Based on the final exchange ratio, GE would accept for exchange approximately 671 million shares of its common stock upon consummation of a fully subscribed exchange offer. At today’s closing price (GE \\$30.16), this would be the equivalent of approximately \\$20.2 billion in GE stock buyback. (The final equivalent will be calculated based on the GE closing price on November 16, 2015.) The exchange offer is currently scheduled to expire at midnight, New York City Time, at the end of the day on November 16, 2015, unless extended or terminated.
 

“We expect to complete the exchange offer next week and are pleased with the result of the pricing period and final exchange ratio. The result is good for GE shareholders as we expect to retire about
671 million shares and reduce our outstanding float by approximately 6.6% upon completion of the exchange offer,” said GE Capital Chairman and CEO Keith Sherin.

The completion of the exchange offer and separation of Synchrony Financial is consistent with GE’s stated strategy of focusing on its industrial core and reducing the size of its financial businesses. The separation reduces the systemic footprint of GE Capital and will allow Synchrony to operate as a stand-alone company and pursue a long-term strategy that is focused only on its own business objectives.