Posted on 04/10/2015 4:59:18 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
General Electric announced a radical plan to slim itself this morning.
It will sell the majority of its GE Capital assets, which represents $500 billion in assets.
It will sell nearly all of its real estate portfolio to investors including Blackstone Group and Wells Fargo & Co for $26.5 billion.
The company also said its board had authorized a share repurchase program of up to $50 billion.
"This is a major step in our strategy to focus GE around its competitive advantages,” GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt said in a press release.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Not long ago, oil looked like a black gold mine for General Electric. The company known for toaster ovens and lightbulbs wrapped up a three-year, $10 billion buying spree in 2013 to bolster the growing oil and gas equipment unit that helped GE recover from the financial crisis. The company bulked up with the expectation that crude prices would remain at about $100 a barrel for years.
These days, with the price of oil 40 percent lower than six months ago, energy companies are buying less drilling and processing equipment. The industry plans to slash spending by $40 billion and cut 100,000 jobs globally. GE’s oil unit is cutting costs and laying off employees, too. In December the company warned investors that the oil and gas division in 2015 could face its first sales decline—of as much as 5 percent—in five years. “I am not being Pollyannaish in any way,” says Jeff Bornstein, GE’s chief financial officer. “It’s going to be a very tough orders year, and we’re going to see an impact.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-12/general-electric-bets-big-on-oil-and-gas-division
Who gets the cash ?
Is GE getting ready for a big acquisition ?
getting out of the bubble assets while they can, smart
buyers are the dumb investors
GE is cheap at this price and pays a 3handle dividend. I’m in because it can’t be manipulated by the George Soros’ of the world and corrupt muslim commie homos like Obambi.
Well cash can become worthless over night...esp with this sub-Saharan money printer ruling.
Bookmark for later.
What’s a three handle dividend?
I suppose never having to pay corporate income taxes helps the bottom line too.
Toxic assets? Bought from JPMorgan and Chase with a bundle.
Or interest rates are set to go up?
“which represents $500 billion in assets. “
those are the assets under management, not assets owned by G.E. Whatever, the sale price of GE Capital ... using cash for share repurchase.
“getting out of the bubble assets while they can”
That is what I was thinking. We’ll have to watch and see if other companies begin to do the same.
3 handle , jobspeak for any dividend paying stock that exceeds three percent. T,VZ, GE, D, etc all have a 3 handle dividend yield.
AAPL has 1 handle.
Ge says it wants to get out of everything except x-ray machines and jet engines.
I expect they will annouce the firing of thousands of people or the companies that bought the assets will do so.
In short the economy is great!........
GE is the #1 stock owned by congress critters.
Sounds like they're raising cash while the dollar is strong.
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