News In Brief

By Compiled from wire service reportsRobert Kilborn and Stephanie Cook

July 31, 2001

GE Capital, the finance arm of conglomerate General Electric, said it will buy Chicago-based Heller Financial for about $5.3 billion in cash in an effort to expand its sizable commercial-finance operations. The purchase comes after Stamford, Conn.-based GE Capital failed to entice CIT Group and Finova Group into deals earlier this year. Heller provides global small and mid-sized firms with services such as secured loans, leasing, and asset management.

Swiss Re, the world's No. 2 reinsurer, said it plans to buy a similar unit from Lincoln National Corp. of Philadelphia. The $2 billion deal would double Swiss Re's North American life- and health-reinsurance business and strengthen its position globally, the Financial Times reported. Reinsurers provide insurance for insurance companies.

A year after increasing its workforce by 15 percent, one of the world's leading truckmakers, MAN of Germany, will cut even more jobs than the 1,600 to 1,800 announced earlier, reports said. The company is a unit of Munich-based MAN AG, a conglomerate that also manufactures aerospace transport systems, diesel engines for ships, and plastic- and metal-processing equipment.