GE buyout-lending unit draws interest from SunTrust, Apollo, Ares - Bloomberg

(Reuters) - SunTrust Banks Inc (STI.N), Apollo Global Management (APO.N) and Ares Management LP (ARES.N) are considering offers for buying General Electric Co's (GE.N) unit that lends to private-equity firms in the United States, Bloomberg reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

GE is working with Citigroup Inc (C.N) to sell the business, which is expected to be worth $10 billion, the face value of its outstanding loans, Bloomberg reported.

The division is among the $200 billion (131.78 billion pounds) of assets put up for sale this month at the company's finance unit. GE plans to return as much as $90 billion to shareholders, as it focuses more on its industrial business.

GE is also working with Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) on a separate sale process for its European private equity-lending arm, which has about $6 billion in loans, Bloomberg reported.

Sue Bishop, a GE Capital spokeswoman, declined to comment.

On Monday, Reuters reported that GE is in early-stage talks with Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) for selling its $74 billion U.S. commercial lending and leasing portfolio to the bank.

GE Capital's size and the potential risks in its lending portfolio made it subject to government regulation as a systemically important financial institution. GE said it would apply to escape that oversight in 2016, as it reduces the size of the financial business.

(Reporting by Amrutha Gayathri in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)