Posted on 02/19/2018 6:31:29 PM PST by SeekAndFind
If your hackles are not yet up concerning the outlook for highly indebted multinational companies such as GE in a possible looming crisis of 2018, they ought to be. From September 2008 until recently, we operated in a new world without traditional controls, prepared to believe everything and happy to own almost anything. Skeptics were mocked, as markets rocked.
However, in recent months, benchmark interest rates in the United States – the largest market in the world – are trending upward after ten years at historic low levels. As interest rates rise, most asset values will fall. Declining asset values are especially worrying for complex borrowers like GE.
Now, investors are, again, agonizing, trying to assess how rising interest rates will affect the values of companies. It is no wonder that GE and its stock price should be back in the spotlight.
Awaiting Crucial GE Details
GE's comprehensive annual report for 2017 will emerge soon. Meanwhile, selling pressures have accentuated following the disappointing fourth quarter 2017 "earnings call" on January 24, 2018.
Judging preliminary financial estimates, a decade's worth of restructuring and finagling yields a still complex collection of businesses, stretched all over the world.
GE's new management's recent disclosures show a company too large to achieve enticing growth rates in revenues, profits, and free cash flow, and too financially weak to shoulder liabilities that might crystallize in a resurgent global crisis.
As of December 31, 2017, GE had $378 billion in total assets, $135 billion in total debt, and only $64 billion left in shareowners' equity, following massive share repurchases and recent losses. More concerning, $104 billion of assets is in "goodwill and other intangibles."
In a new crisis, this large slice of GE's balance sheet would not be saleable quickly, or at stated values
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Immelt was always a horse’s ass. He was the Roger Goodell of multinationals.
My Dad spend 35 or 40 years at GE leading some of the most amazing spacecraft development projects, the first guidance system on the Polaris missile, then later program managed GE’s very first multi-megawatt wind turbine and some other energy projects. He had The demise of GE really hurts personally. Dad is rolling over in his grave.
Wasn’t GE’s CEO a big Obama ass kisser?
I guess they will have to sell off NBC.
Cut Immelt some slack. Anyone who rides around in a private jet needs a second backup jet following it around 'just in case'. Just because the guy was an incompetent fool is no reason to call him names.
If they had back the money they spent on him and his toadies, the balance sheet would probably look OK. But he is in the class of leaders that get themselves rich while screwing the shareholders. And the workers.
They already did. 2013.
0bama gone just over a year and GE is failing. Winning!
Ever contract for GE? I don’t feel sorry for them one bit.
Jack Welch left Immelt a losing hand. I saw first hand why GE under Welch mostly concentrated on product lines with exorbitant profit margins. Those covered up GE management’s incompetency. Once the margin’s evaporated, GE was screwed.
No Jack Welsh’s in shining Armor to the rescue......
“John Francis “Jack” Welch Jr. is an American retired business executive, author, and chemical engineer. He was chairman and CEO of General Electric between 1981 and 2001. During his tenure at GE, the company’s value rose 4,000%.
And he is a Conservative.
Who do you think was building all of those Industrial Wind Turbine generators and relays?
Sounds like a repeat of what happened to Westinghouse, but on a larger scale.
If they played their cards right, they could turn it around in this economy. There is no reason they can’t capitalize on an American economic resurgence.
I used to be a customer of GE. In many industries. However, every single time they lied. When you fire 10% every year, you encourage unethical behavior
Mine too. 33 years with GE. To the end of his days he spoke of the compass “we”. Immelt was and is a brown nose loser imho
Unfortunately, they have $20 billion in pension debt that severely inhibits their ability to maneuver.
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