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The customers of top 10 BusinessCar BC50 leasing company GE Capital Fleet Services have been told that it is "open for business" despite the firm's US owner, multinational conglomerate General Electric, announcing its intention to offload its global financial services business GE Capital over the next 24 months.
The UK leasing firm is part of GE Capital UK, which in turn is a subsidiary of GE Capital.
GE Capital Fleet Services is the ninth-largest leasing company in the UK.
It has a total risk fleet of 47,420 vehicles, but growth in the number on its books was flat in 2014. The company also offers management and consultancy services.
Its parent GE Capital leases 1.4 million vehicles worldwide and has operations in Europe, the Americas and Asia.
Potentially, GE Capital Fleet Services could be acquired by a rival leasing company in the UK or be snapped up by a private equity group. A merger between it and another large leasing firm would put GE's UK leasing division into the top five leasing businesses in the UK.
GE said it wanted to sell its financial operations worldwide to concentrate on its industrial operations after finding it "increasingly difficult to generate acceptable returns". The industrial giant expects to generate £23.7bn from the sale of GE Capital's assets.
A GE Capital UK spokesman said: "Here in the UK, GE Capital is open for business. We remain fully committed to our customers and are focused on delivering for each and every one.
"We anticipate being able to sell our businesses to buyers who are fully committed to and invested in the financial services industry and can offer a good environment for growth."
While GE Capital UK maintains that it is business as usual, the announcement still introduces an element of uncertainty for fleets taking on multiple-year agreements with the company when it is currently unclear when the business will be sold, or who to.
GE stated that it will retain some GE Capital businesses that are directly related to its industrial operations across the world.
Jeff Immelt, GE chairman and CEO, said: "This is a major step in our strategy to focus GE around its competitive advantages.
"GE Capital has been an important part of the history of GE.
"However, the business model for large, wholesale-funded financial companies has changed, making it increasingly difficult to generate acceptable returns going forward."
The last big merger in the UK leasing industry was between Zenith and Leasedrive in January last year, moving the joint business into eighth position to 57,464 vehicles in the BC50 list of the largest leasing companies in the UK.
The biggest acquisition of recent times was in 2011 when Alphabet burst into the top three in the UK through the purchase of ING Car Lease for 637m euros, combining the companies then placed eight and nine in the top 10.
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