General Electric (GE) Real Estate has appointed Marianna Nitsch as general counsel of its European arm.

Nitsch, who was formerly the legal head of the company's French division, took up the post at the beginning of July following the promotion of predecessor Theirry Leleu to the role of European managing director of GE Real Estate's Global Investment Management platform.

Commenting on the appointment, Eileen Brumback, GE Real Estate senior vice president legal, said: "Marianna's experience will be of immense value to the business on a pan-European level and will help us continue to maintain the very highest standard of compliance and legal practices."

Prior to her work with GE Real Estate, Nitsch was international legal director and chief compliance officer of medical company Biogen Idec.

Nitsch also spent ten years working as an M&A and securities specialist at Shearman & Sterling, Gide Loyrette Nouel and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

The news comes after General Electric Money agreed to acquire Banco Santander-owned Italian bank Interbanca as part of a €2bn (£1.58bn) asset swap between the companies.

The completion of the deal will see Santander integrate the GE Money business into its consumer finance and Santander Cards businesses while Interbanca will become part of GE Commercial Finance. GE was advised by Slaughter and May.

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