“I will withdraw from General Electric and will start my business in the financial services sector,” he told Business Standard. Ionescu added his successor has already arrived in the company, and that the transfer of responsibilities will be made by the end of the year. He said his successor is a Romanian citizen, recently hired by GE.

“I have been working for General Electric for 23 years, having been employed on September 1, 1984,” Ionescu said, adding he initially planned to withdraw on September 1, this year. 

He declined to provide details on the business he intends to open, and the money he will invest in the new company.
Sources within GE indicated that Ionescu would withdraw from the company at a certain point to retire. They added that discussions on the manager’s successor are ongoing.

General Electric is the largest local investor among top worldwide giants. The company is involved in several fields, such as energy, real estate and sales. It recently acquired local company Turbomecanica, producer of aerospace parts and high tech components.

GE Money, the group’s international financial services division, announced the purchase of the controlling interest in companies Leasemart NV (which owns the Motoractive leasing company), Ralfi SA (consumer loan provider, under the Estima Finance brand), and Domenia Credit SA. Shares were bought from the Romanian-American Enterprise Fund (RAEF).  This is the second major investment of GE in Romania. Genpact, a company of which GE owns 40 percent, announced last year it would spend $80 million on a Service Center for Business and Technological Solutions. 

GE Money currently operates in 23 European countries and has assets worth some $73 billion. In Central Europe, the company has several banks and provides financial services for clients in Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Russia and Turkey.