Breaking Down GE Money: A BloggingStocks series

I estimate that General Electric Company's (NYSE: GE) GE Money segment is worth between $29.6 billion and $54.7 billion.

GE Money, which constituted 13.3%, 13.1%, and 11.7% of GE consolidated revenues in 2006, 2005, and 2004, respectively, provides financial services to consumers and retailers in 50 countries. GE Money offers private-label credit cards; personal loans; bank cards; auto loans and leases; mortgages; corporate travel and purchasing cards; debt consolidation; home equity loans; deposit and other savings products, and credit insurance.

GE Money enjoyed 15% revenue growth and and 5% operating profit growth in the first half. Unfortunately, it also had a subprime mortgage business -- $3.7 billion worth of which GE sold at a loss. GE Money continues to hold $1.1 billion worth of subprime mortgages. To me the biggest concern about GE Money is that comparable companies -- see below -- have low P/E ratios -- around 10. Thus this business could be dragging down GE's corporate valuation.

Assuming that GE Money generates net income of $3 billion in 2007, here are the range of valuations based on the Price/Earnings ratios of the following peer companies:

• Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) P/E: 9.9. $29.6 billion
• Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF) P/E: 11.3. $33.8 billion
• American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) P/E: 18.3. $54.7 billion

Next: Breaking Down GE Healthcare

Peter Cohan is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He owns General Electric shares and has no financial interest in the other securities mentioned in this post.