GE completes acquisition of Alstom power and grid businesses

PARIS, FRANCE, Nov. 2, 2015 /CNW/ - GE [NYSE:GE] announced today that it has completed the acquisition of Alstom's power and grid businesses. The completion of the transaction follows the regulatory approval of the deal in over 20 countries and regions including the EU, U.S., China, India, Japan and Brazil. It is GE's largest-ever industrial acquisition.

GE reached an agreement with Alstom in 2014 to purchase Alstom's power and grid businesses for €12.35 billion.  Adjusting for the joint ventures announced in June 2014 (renewables, grid, and nuclear), changes in the deal structure, price adjustments for remedies, net cash at close, and including the effects of currency, the purchase price is €9.7B (approximately $10.6B). This includes working capital usage of approximately €0.6B in the month of October.  GE expects the deal to generate $0.05-0.08 of earnings per share in 2016 and $0.15-0.20 of earnings per share by 2018.  GE is targeting $3.0 billion in cost synergies in year five and strong deal returns.  The overall economics and strategic rationale remain the same as GE announced in April 2014.

"The completion of the Alstom power and grid acquisition is another significant step in GE's transformation," said Jeff Immelt, chairman and CEO, GE. "The complementary technology, global capability, installed base, and talent of Alstom will further our core industrial growth. We are open for business and ready to deliver one of the most comprehensive technology offerings in the energy sector for our customers."

Customers will realize immediate benefit from the combination of GE and Alstom, including these current projects:

• PSEG Sewaren (New Jersey combined cycle power plant): GE 7HA gas turbine + Alstom heat recovery steam generator (HRSG)
• Punjab Pakistan Bhikki (Pakistan combined cycle power plant): two GE 9HA gas turbines + Alstom steam turbine
• Exelon Power Plants (Texas power projects): four GE 7HA gas turbines + four Alstom HRSGs
• Chempark (Leverkusen, Germany combined heat and power project): GE 9HA gas turbine.

In addition, GE and Alstom are both preferred bidders for a combined cycle plant project in Asia that would use two GE 7HA gas turbines, two Alstom HRSGs and one Alstom steam generator, and Alstom is the preferred bidder for Arabelle steam turbines in two UK nuclear reactors; the preferred bidder for boilers, steam turbines and generators a clean coal project in the Middle East; and has successfully delivered India's first 800 kV High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) power transformer for the Champa-Kurukshetra project.

GE also announced today it has completed the sale of its rail signaling business to Alstom for approximately $800 million.

GE continues to execute its strategy to become a simpler, more focused company. In addition to the Alstom acquisition, the split-off of Synchrony Financial has commenced; the GE Capital exit strategy is ahead of plan, with $126 billion of signed dispositions; the recent formation of GE Digital is consolidating all digital capabilities across the company to provide customers with the best industrial solutions and software; and GE is winning in the marketplace and delivering strong financial results.

A call will be held to update investors on December 3, 2015. Visit www.ge.com/investor.

For more information on the deal visit www.ge-alstom.com

About GE:
GE (NYSE: GE) is the world's Digital Industrial Company, transforming industry with software-defined machines and solutions that are connected, responsive and predictive. GE is organized around a global exchange of knowledge, the "GE Store," through which each business shares and accesses the same technology, markets, structure and intellect. Each invention further fuels innovation and application across our industrial sectors. With people, services, technology and scale, GE delivers better outcomes for customers by speaking the language of industry. www.ge.com

Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements: 
This document contains "forward-looking statements" – that is, statements related to future, not past, events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address our expected future business and financial performance and financial condition, and often contain words such as "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "believe," "seek," "see," "will," "would," or "target." Forward-looking statements by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain, such as statements about our announced plan to reduce the size of our financial services businesses, including expected cash and non-cash charges associated with this plan; expected income; earnings per share; revenues; organic growth; margins; cost structure; restructuring charges; cash flows; return on capital; capital expenditures, capital allocation or capital structure; dividends; and the split between Industrial and GE Capital earnings. For us, particular uncertainties that could cause our actual results to be materially different than those expressed in our forward-looking statements include: obtaining (or the timing of obtaining) any required regulatory reviews or approvals or any other consents or approvals associated with our announced plan to reduce the size of our financial services businesses; our ability to complete incremental asset sales as part of that plan in a timely manner (or at all) and at the prices we have assumed; changes in law, economic and financial conditions, including interest and exchange rate volatility, commodity and equity prices and the value of financial assets, including the impact of these conditions on our ability to sell or the value of incremental assets to be sold as part of our announced plan to reduce the size of our financial services businesses as well as other aspects of that plan; the impact of conditions in the financial and credit markets on the availability and cost of GECC's funding, and GECC's exposure to counterparties; the impact of conditions in the housing market and unemployment rates on the level of commercial and consumer credit defaults; pending and future mortgage loan repurchase claims and other litigation claims in connection with WMC, which may affect our estimates of liability, including possible loss estimates; our ability to maintain our current credit rating and the impact on our funding costs and competitive position if we do not do so; the adequacy of our cash flows and earnings and other conditions which may affect our ability to pay our quarterly dividend at the planned level or to repurchase shares at planned levels; GECC's ability to pay dividends to GE at the planned level, which may be affected by GECC's cash flows and earnings, financial services regulation and oversight, and other factors; our ability to convert pre-order commitments/wins into orders; the price we realize on orders since commitments/wins are stated at list prices; customer actions or developments such as early aircraft retirements or reduced energy demand and other factors that may affect the level of demand and financial performance of the major industries and customers we serve; the effectiveness of our risk management framework; the impact of regulation and regulatory, investigative and legal proceedings and legal compliance risks, including the impact of financial services regulation and litigation; adverse market conditions, timing of and ability to obtain required bank regulatory approvals, or other factors relating to us or Synchrony Financial that could prevent us from completing the Synchrony Financial split-off as planned; our capital allocation plans, as such plans may change including with respect to the timing and size of share repurchases, acquisitions, joint ventures, dispositions and other strategic actions; our success in completing, including obtaining regulatory approvals for, announced transactions, such as the proposed transactions and alliances with Alstom and Appliances and our announced plan and transactions to reduce the size of our financial services businesses, and our ability to realize anticipated earnings and savings; our success in integrating acquired businesses and operating joint ventures; the impact of potential information technology or data security breaches; and the other factors that are described in "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2014. These or other uncertainties may cause our actual future results to be materially different than those expressed in our forward-looking statements. We do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements.

This document includes certain forward-looking projected financial information that is based on current estimates and forecasts. Actual results could differ materially.

SOURCE General Electric Canada Inc.

Media Contacts: Jim Healy, [email protected], [phone] or [phone]; Seth Martin, [email protected], [phone]; Investor Contact: Matt Cribbins, 203.373.2424, [email protected]