The Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — General Electric is targeting late July for the initial public offering of its credit card business, named Synchrony Financial.

The announcement Friday, which was included in the company’s second-quarter earnings report, is the first step in GE’s exit from that line of business.

General Electric Co. is trying to become a more focused industrial conglomerate by shedding other divisions such as NBC Universal, real estate and some banking operations.

It said that it’s on track to meet its goal of $1 billion or more in structural cost-out for the year, with $382 million of cost-out through the first half of 2014.

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