General Electric (GE) is joining forces with Abu Dhabi investment firm Mubadala Development to provide $8bn ( GE has been targeting growth in the Middle East and last year the firm saw revenue from the region increase by 50% on the year before to $5bn."What [this joint venture] allows us to do is get good geographic and asset spread of risk, but more importantly it allows us to reallocate to higher-return opportunities in commercial finance," said GE's chief executive Jeff Immelt.

GE recently reported a 6% fall in second-quarter profits as a result of the US economic slowdown and cooling consumer spending.