General Electric Co aims to close its pending acquisition of $7 billion in bank deposits from MetLife inc by the end of this year, GE's chief financial officer said on Friday. "Our objective is to try to get regulatory approval this year," CFO Keith Sherin said in an interview after GE reported third-quarter results. "We don't control that timetable, but that's still our objective and we're having constructive discussions around that."GE, which is the largest U.S. conglomerate, and MetLife agreed last month to change the structure of their deal, making it subject to approval by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, rather than the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, a move analysts saw as intended to speed approvals.GE in December reached an accord to purchase the deposits, which it sees as a way to make its GE Capital finance arm less dependent on short-term borrowing.
MetLife, Inc. (MetLife), is a provider of insurance, annuities and employee benefit programs, serving 90 million customers in over 50 countries. Shares of MET fell by 3.6% or $-1.3365/share to $35.77. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $27.60 and as high as $39.55. On average, 9081510 shares of MET exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 5971320.
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