State Street to buy GE Asset Management for up to $485 million

(Reuters) - State Street Corp (STT.N) said it would buy General Electric Co's (GE.N) asset management business for up to $485 million (337 million pounds) as the industrial conglomerate winds down its financing arm to reduce regulatory burden.

The deal, which could boost State Street's assets under management by about $100 billion, is expected to be finalised early in the third quarter.

GE said proceeds from the transaction would be deposited into its pension trust.

Reuters reported in early February that Boston-based State Street has prevailed over other bidders, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N), for the business.

GE has been disposing assets off GE Capital, a $200 billion financing business, as it seeks to return to its industrial roots.

GE's asset management arm managed $115 billion in assets as of June 30. It manages retirement plans for a vast majority of the company's 130,000 U.S. employees, as well as assets for outside institutional investors.

State Street had $28 trillion in assets under custody and administration and $2 trillion in assets under management as of the end of December.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Don Sebastian)