ITT to Sell More Financial Services Units : Divestiture: Deal tentatively calls for GE Capital to pay $1.8 billion for the three businesses.

NEW YORK — ITT Corp., the insurance and manufacturing conglomerate that has been expanding aggressively into entertainment, has agreed to sell another part of its financial services business for $1.8 billion.

General Electric Capital Corp. signed a preliminary agreement to buy ITT’s equipment finance, small business finance and commercial real estate services businesses, ITT said Tuesday. GE Capital is based in Stamford, Conn.

The deal follows ITT’s announcement in late December that it had signed separate agreements to sell its consumer and commercial finance businesses to two banking companies, Norwest Corp. and the U.S. arm of Germany’s Deutsche Bank, for a combined $3.7 billion.

At the time, ITT said it was in talks with an unidentified buyer about selling the three businesses at issue in Tuesday’s sale. It said Tuesday that it has been negotiating with GE Capital since then.

ITT closed up $1.50 a share at $96.75 on the New York Stock Exchange.

New York-based ITT has decided to focus on its Hartford insurance business, its manufacturing operations and its lodging and entertainment businesses.

It owns the Sheraton hotel chain and is paying $1.7 billion for Caesars World Inc., which owns casino hotels in Nevada and New Jersey. Completion of the Caesars World deal is expected in March.

ITT is also a partner with the cable provider Cablevision Systems Corp. in the pending $1.08-billion purchase of Madison Square Garden Inc. from Viacom Inc. Madison Square Garden owns the famed New York sports arena, the New York Knicks basketball and Rangers hockey teams and a regional sports cable channel.

The deal is currently under review by the National Hockey League and the National Basketball Assn., which forbid team owners from having an interest in businesses that take bets on their sports.

To win approval, ITT has offered to quit handling bets on pro basketball and hockey at its casinos.

In an unrelated announcement, ITT and Caesars World said Tuesday that Peter Boynton has been named president and chief operating officer of Los Angeles-based Caesars World. He succeeds J. Terrence Lanni, 51, who resigned.

Boynton, 52, has been with Caesars World for 20 years and has been president and chief operating officer of Caesars Atlantic City since 1981.

Mark Juliano, 40, will succeed Boynton at Caesars’ Atlantic City operation, where he has been executive vice president since August, 1993.