NEW YORK -- General Electric (IW 500/7) chief executive Jeffrey Immelt said Monday he was happy with the market launch of Synchrony Financial last week, despite its struggle to maintain its $23 IPO price.
"Given the day, the market at the end of the week, I think they did a good job with Synchrony," he said.
Shares in Synchrony, GE's retail finance arm which includes credit-card ventures with Amazon, Gap and Wal-Mart Stores, sank after hitting the New York Stock Exchange Thursday, in a general equity sell-off.
GE raised $2.9 billion in the initial public offering, pricing it at the low end of the projected range as the markets turned down after a long bull run.
In the first two days of trade, the shares fell as low as $22.60 before buying at the end of Friday's session pulled them up to $23.
Immelt said the performance was not worrisome, and that GE is sticking to its plan to divest the rest of its shares in the unit next year.
"I think its really going to be a good company, off to a good start."
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2014
