Skip to main content
×

GE.com has been updated to serve our three go-forward companies.

Please visit these standalone sites for more information

GE Aerospace | GE Vernova | GE HealthCare 

Press Release

GE Announces Third Quarter 2018 Results

October 30, 2018
  • 3Q’18 GAAP continuing EPS of ($2.63); 3Q’18 adjusted EPS (non-GAAP) of $0.14
  • GE CFOA (GAAP) of $(3.4) billion; adjusted GE Industrial free cash flows (non-GAAP) of $1.1 billion-a)
  • Recorded non-cash goodwill impairment charge of $22 billion, before tax, related to GE Power
  • GE plans to reduce quarterly dividend to $0.01 per share beginning with next declaration, expected in December 2018
  • GE intends to reorganize GE Power to improve cost structure, enhance execution agility, and drive better outcomes for customers and investors 
 

BOSTON - October 30, 2018 - GE (NYSE:GE) announced results today for the quarter ended September 30, 2018. The Company reported a loss of $2.63 per share from GAAP continuing operations. As summarized in the attached reconciliation, adjusted earnings per share (non-GAAP) were $0.14, down 33 percent from the same period in 2017. The Company recorded a non-cash goodwill impairment charge of $22 billion, before tax, related to GE Power. 

The Company also announced immediate actions to strengthen its balance sheet and position its businesses for success. 

First, GE plans to reduce its quarterly dividend from $0.12 to $0.01 per share beginning with the Board’s next dividend declaration, which is expected to occur in December 2018.  This change will allow GE to retain ~$3.9 billion of cash per year compared to the prior payout level.

Second, GE intends to reorganize Power to accelerate the business’ operating and financial improvements. GE plans to create two units - a unified Gas business combining GE’s gas product and services groups, and a second unit constituting the portfolio of GE Power’s other assets including Steam, Grid Solutions, Nuclear, and Power Conversion. The Company also intends to consolidate Power’s headquarters structure to ensure these units can best serve their customers. 

GE Chairman and CEO H. Lawrence Culp Jr. said, “After my first few weeks on the job, it’s clear to me that GE is a fundamentally strong company with a talented team and great technology. However, our results are far from our full potential. We will heighten our sense of urgency and increase accountability across the organization to deliver better results. 

 

“We are on the right path to create a more focused portfolio and strengthen our balance sheet. My priorities in my first 100 days are positioning our businesses to win, starting with Power, and accelerating deleveraging. We are moving with speed to improve our financial position, starting with the actions announced today. I look forward to updating you further on our progress in early 2019.”

For full financial results, please view on our investor relations website here.  

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," “estimate,” “forecast,” "target," “preliminary,” or “range.” 

Forward-looking statements by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain, such as statements about potential business or asset dispositions, including plans to separate GE Healthcare into a standalone company, the timing and structure for that separation, the characteristics of the business to be separated and the expected benefits to GE; plans to exit our equity ownership position in Baker Hughes, a GE company (BHGE) and the expected benefits to GE; capital allocation, including our plans with respect to the timing and amount of GE dividends, organic investment and other priorities; our capital structure and access to funding, including leverage ratios and targets, debt repayment plans and credit ratings and outlooks; divestiture proceeds expectations; GE and GE Capital liquidity; future corporate performance; leverage targets; future charges and capital contributions that may be required in connection with GE Capital’s run-off insurance operations and related GE Capital portfolio actions; revenues; organic growth; cash flows and cash conversion, including the impact of working capital, contract assets and pension funding contributions; earnings per share, including the impact of the new revenue recognition accounting standard and U.S. tax reform; future business growth and productivity gains; profit margins; the benefits of restructuring, the new GE operating system and the future cost profile and performance of Corporate; our businesses’ cost structures and plans to reduce costs; restructuring, goodwill impairment or other financial charges; tax rates; transaction-related synergies, proceeds and gains; or returns on capital and investment.

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

  • our success in executing and completing, including obtaining regulatory approvals and satisfying other closing conditions for, GE Industrial and GE Capital business or asset dispositions or other announced transactions, including our planned separation of GE Healthcare and dispositions of GE Transportation and BHGE, the pricing, gain or loss recognition, timing, and anticipated proceeds from those or other transactions and potential trailing liabilities;
  • GE’s liquidity and the amount and timing of our GE Industrial cash flows and earnings, which may be impacted by customer, competitive, contractual and other dynamics and conditions;
  • our capital allocation plans, as such plans may change including with respect to the timing and amount of GE dividends, organic investments, including research and development, investments in Digital and capital expenditures, the repayment or allocation of our outstanding debt obligations, pension funding contributions, acquisitions, joint ventures and other strategic actions;
  • further downgrades of our current short- and long-term credit ratings or ratings outlooks and the related impact on our funding profile, costs and competitive position;
  • customer actions or market developments such as reduced demand for equipment and services and other challenges in our Power business, other shifts in the competitive landscape for our products and services, changes in economic conditions, including oil prices, early aircraft retirements and other factors that may affect the level of demand and financial performance of the major industries and customers we serve;
  • changes in law, economic and financial conditions, including the effect of enactment of U.S. tax reform or other tax law changes, trade policy and tariffs, interest and exchange rate volatility, commodity and equity prices and the value of financial assets;
  • GE Capital's capital and liquidity needs, including in connection with GE Capital’s run-off insurance operations, the amount and timing of required capital contributions and related strategic actions that we may pursue, the WMC-related matters described below, the impact of conditions in the financial and credit markets on GE Capital's ability to sell financial assets, GE Capital’s leverage and credit ratings, the availability and cost of GE Capital funding and GE Capital's exposure to counterparties;
  • pending and future mortgage loan repurchase claims, other litigation claims and the U.S. Department of Justice's investigation under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989 and other investigations in connection with WMC, which may affect our estimates of liability, including possible loss estimates;
  • our ability to launch new products in a cost-effective manner;
  • our ability to increase margins through implementation of the new GE operating system, restructuring and other cost reduction measures;
  • our ability to convert pre-order commitments/wins into orders/bookings; and the price we realize on orders/bookings since commitments/wins are stated at list prices;
  • the impact of regulation and regulatory, investigative and legal proceedings and legal compliance risks, including the impact of WMC, Alstom, SEC and other investigative and legal proceedings;
  • our success in integrating acquired businesses and operating joint ventures, and our ability to realize revenue and cost synergies from announced transactions, acquired businesses and joint ventures, including Alstom and BHGE;
  • the impact of potential product failures and related reputational effects;
  • the impact of potential information technology, cybersecurity or data security breaches;
  • the other factors that are described in "Forward-Looking Statements" in BHGE’s most recent earnings release or SEC filings; and
  • the other factors that are described in "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017 and our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended June 30, 2018 and September 30, 2018.

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.

Our public communications and SEC filings may include certain forward-looking projected financial information that is based on current estimates and forecasts. Actual results could differ materially.

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.

Supplemental Financial Information

Supplemental financial information can be found on the Company’s website at: 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. EDT. 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

GE Investor Contacts:

Todd Ernst, 617.443.3400

[email protected]

GE Media Contact:

Jennifer Erickson, 646.682.5620

[email protected]

Todd Ernst

Jennifer Erickson
GE Corporate
[email protected]
+1 646 682 5620


business unit
tags