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Press Release

GE ANNOUNCES FIRST QUARTER 2020 RESULTS

April 29, 2020

COVID-19 challenged first-quarter results; taking swift action to mitigate impact and solidify financial position

  • Total orders $19.5B, (5)%; organic orders (3)%
  • Total revenues (GAAP) $20.5B, (8)%; Industrial organic revenues* $18.9B, (5)%
  • Industrial profit margin (GAAP) of 34.9%, +2,960 bps; adjusted Industrial profit margin* 5.8%, (410) bps
  • Continuing EPS (GAAP) of $0.72, including a $11.1 billion after-tax gain following the sale of BioPharma and a $4.6 billion after-tax unrealized loss on marking GE's investment in Baker Hughes to market; adjusted EPS* $0.05
  • GE CFOA (GAAP) $(1.7)B; Industrial free cash flow* $(2.2)B

BOSTON — April 29, 2020 — GE (NYSE:GE) announced results today for the first quarter ending March 31, 2020.

GE Chairman and CEO H. Lawrence Culp, Jr. said, “During this unprecedented pandemic, the GE team is focused on protecting the safety of our employees and communities, serving customers in their critical time of need, and preserving our strength for the long term. GE is delivering critical infrastructure and services across the globe, including our teams at Healthcare supporting caregivers who diagnose and treat COVID-19 patients every day."

Culp continued, “The impact from COVID-19 materially challenged our first-quarter results, especially in Aviation, where we saw a dramatic decline in commercial aerospace as the virus spread globally in March. We are targeting more than $2 billion in operational cost out and $3 billion of cash preservation to mitigate the financial impact, and we executed a series of actions to de-risk and de-lever our balance sheet amid a challenging environment. While there are many unknowns, there will be another side—planes will fly again, healthcare will normalize and modernize, and the world still needs more efficient, resilient energy. We're embracing today's reality and accelerating our multi-year transformation to make GE a stronger, nimbler, and more valuable company."

Read the full results on GE’s Investor Relations website.

Please visit our investor website for full information:

Caution Concerning Forward Looking Statements

This release and certain of our other public communications and SEC filings may contain statements related to future, not past, events. These 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," "estimate," "forecast," "target," "preliminary," or "range." Forward-looking statements by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain, such as statements about the potential impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business operations, financial results and financial position and on the world economy; our expected financial performance, including cash flows, revenues, organic growth, margins, earnings and earnings per share; macroeconomic and market conditions and volatility; planned and potential business or asset dispositions; our de-leveraging plans, including leverage ratios and targets, the timing and nature of actions to reduce indebtedness and our credit ratings and outlooks; GE's and GE Capital's funding and liquidity; our businesses’ cost structures and plans to reduce costs; restructuring, goodwill impairment or other financial charges; or tax rates.

For us, particular uncertainties that could cause our actual results to be materially different than those expressed in our forward-looking statements include:

  • the severity, magnitude and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic, including impacts of the pandemic and of businesses' and governments' responses to the pandemic on our operations and personnel, and on commercial activity and demand across our and our customers' businesses, and on global supply chains;
  • our inability to predict the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic and related impacts will continue to adversely impact our business operations, financial performance, results of operations, financial position, the prices of our securities and the achievement of our strategic objectives;
  • changes in macroeconomic and market conditions and market volatility (including developments and volatility arising from the COVID-19 pandemic), including interest rates, the value of securities and other financial assets (including our equity ownership position in Baker Hughes), oil and other commodity prices and exchange rates, and the impact of such changes and volatility on our financial position;
  • our de-leveraging and capital allocation plans, including with respect to actions to reduce our indebtedness, the timing and amount of GE dividends, organic investments, and other priorities;
  • further downgrades of our current short- and long-term credit ratings or ratings outlooks, or changes in rating application or methodology, and the related impact on our liquidity, funding profile, costs and competitive position;
  • GE’s liquidity and the amount and timing of our GE Industrial cash flows and earnings, which may be impacted by customer, supplier, competitive, contractual and other dynamics and conditions;
  • GE Capital's capital and liquidity needs, including in connection with GE Capital’s run-off insurance operations and discontinued operations, the amount and timing of required capital contributions to the insurance operations and any strategic actions that we may pursue; the impact of conditions in the financial and credit markets on GE Capital's ability to sell financial assets; the availability and cost of funding; and GE Capital's exposure to particular counterparties and markets;
  • our success in executing and completing asset dispositions or other transactions, including our plan to exit our equity ownership position in Baker Hughes, the timing of closing for such transactions and the expected proceeds and benefits to GE;
  • global economic trends, competition and geopolitical risks, including changes in the rates of investment or economic growth in key markets we serve, or an escalation of trade tensions such as those between the U.S. and China;
  • market developments or customer actions that may affect levels of demand and the financial performance of the major industries and customers we serve, such as secular, cyclical and competitive pressures in our Power business, pricing and other pressures in the renewable energy market, levels of demand for air travel and other customer dynamics such as early aircraft retirements, conditions in key geographic markets and other shifts in the competitive landscape for our products and services;
  • operational execution by our businesses, including our ability to improve the operations and execution of our Power and Renewable Energy businesses, and the performance of our Aviation business;
  • changes in law, regulation or policy that may affect our businesses, such as trade policy and tariffs, regulation related to climate change, and the effects of U.S. tax reform and other tax law changes;
  • our decisions about investments in new products, services and platforms, and our ability to launch new products in a cost-effective manner;
  • our ability to increase margins through implementation of operational changes, restructuring and other cost reduction measures;
  • the impact of regulation and regulatory, investigative and legal proceedings and legal compliance risks, including the impact of Alstom, SEC and other investigative and legal proceedings;
  • the impact of actual or potential failures of our products or third-party products with which our products are integrated, such as the fleet grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX, and the timing of its return to service and return to delivery, and related reputational effects;
  • the impact of potential information technology, cybersecurity or data security breaches; and
  • the other factors that are described in the "Risk Factors" section of our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2020 and of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, as such descriptions may be updated or amended in any future reports we file with the SEC.

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 release includes certain forward-looking projected financial information that is based on current estimates and forecasts, and actual results could differ materially. Refer also to the webcast of our investor conference later this morning for additional discussion of our outlook and uncertainties that could cause our future results to be different than our current expectations.

General Electric Capital Corporation (GECC) has been merged into GE and our financial services business is now operated by GE Capital Global Holdings, LLC (GECGH). In our public communications and SEC filings, we refer to GECC and GECGH as “GE Capital”. We refer to the industrial businesses of the Company including GE Capital on an equity basis as “GE”. “GE (ex-GE Capital)” and /or “Industrial” refer to GE excluding GE Capital. Our financial services segment previously referred to as GE Capital is now referred to as Capital.

GE’s Investor Relations website at www.ge.com/investor and our corporate blog at www.gereports.com, as well as GE’s Facebook page and Twitter accounts, contain a significant amount of information about GE, including financial and other information for investors. GE encourages investors to visit these websites from time to time, as information is updated and new information is posted.

Additional Financial Information

Additional financial information can be found on the Company’s website at: www.ge.com/investor under Events and Reports.

Conference Call and Webcast

GE will discuss its results during its investor conference call today starting at 8:00 a.m. ET. The conference call will be broadcast live via webcast, and the webcast and accompanying slide presentation containing financial information can be accessed by visiting the Events and Reports page on GE’s website at: www.ge.com/investor. An archived version of the webcast will be available on the website after the call.

About GE

GE (NYSE:GE) drives the world forward by tackling its biggest challenges. By combining world-class engineering with software and analytics, GE helps the world work more efficiently, reliably, and safely. For more than 125 years, GE has invented the future of industry, and today it leads new paradigms in additive manufacturing, materials science, and data analytics. GE people are global, diverse and dedicated, operating with the highest integrity and passion to fulfill GE’s mission and deliver for our customers. www.ge.com

For media inquiries, please contact:

Mary Kate Mullaney
Director, Financial & Executive Communications
GE
+1 202 304 6514
[email protected]
Steve Winoker
Vice President, Investor Relations
GE
+1 617 443 3400
[email protected]

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