General Electric Plots To Sell Entire Consumer & Industrial Group

General Electric Co., two months after placing its century-old appliance unit on the block, said it plans to spin off its entire GE Consumer & Industrial group to shareholders as Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt struggles to raise a slumping stock price.

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Possible bidders for the appliance unit include Arcelik AS, Turkey's largest maker of household appliances; Hong Kong-based Haier Electronics Group Co. and South Korea's LG Electronics Inc. Such a sale could fetch $3 billion to $8 billion, according estimates from analysts including Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

GE has cut costs, product lines and jobs from all three divisions in the GE Consumer & Industrial segment for years to keep profitability rising. The lighting operations announced last year that another 1,400 positions would be slashed as it shut incandescent plants in favor of manufacturing more efficient, compact fluorescent bulbs overseas.