Reuters reported that General Electric plans to continue to shrink its finance arm, pulling back from consumer finance and reducing its real estate holdings, but chairman and chief executive Jeff Immelt said on Wednesday (5/23/12) he did not know how long the change would take.

The article said that GE Capital expects profit growth to be at a single-digit percentage rate in 2013, rather than in double digits as it lowers the amount the unit invests outside GE’s core industrial operations.

“There’s just so many things that are out of my control on that, that it’s hard to make predictions. I’d like that to take care of itself both by industrial (earnings) improving and by Capital shrinking, but it’s just hard to predict the exact time period. But I think, in general, smaller’s better,” Reuters quoted Immelt as telling the Electrical Products Group conference in Longboat Key, FL.

To read the full Reuters article, click here.