General Electric Co. is considering a possibility to purchase closely held NIB Capital Bank NV, a Dutch commercial-finance and investment bank praised at more than $3 billion, said people familiar with the matter.
NIB Capital earned $228 million in net income in 2004 compared with $96.8 million in 2003. It recently engaged Goldman Sachs to estimate whether to sell the bank or offer shares to the public. The process is in its early stages, and potential buyers are evaluating the books, according to people familiar with the situation.

GE Commercial Finance, the biggest single business at the Fairfield, Conn., conglomerate, has been expanding aggressively, especially in Europe, where it conducts various operations starting from owning and leasing real estate up to lending money, mainly to mid-market businesses. Its profit rose 15% percent in 2004 to $4.5 billion compared with $3.9 billion in 2003. Its assets made up $240 billion.

NIB, based in the Hague, is specialized in commercial lending but is also engaged in investment banking, an area which appears to be unknown for GE. NIB is oriented on northwestern Europe with offices in London, Brussels, Singapore, Curacao and Greenwich, Conn.

GE has recently purchased the Paris property group Sophia SA for nearly $2 billion; it gave $2.3 billion for the structured finance unit of ABB Ltd., the Zurich-based power and automation-technology group. It also bought most of Dutch insurer Aegon NV’s commercial-finance businesses that are focused on Europe and the U.S. for $5.4 billion in 2003, according to the Wall Street Journal.