| |
| |
![]() |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
NEW YORK : General Electric, the huge conglomerate seen a bellwether for the US economy, on Friday announced that its third-quarter earnings plunged by 23 percent from a year ago to 4.3 billion dollars.
GE's finance arm took a hit from the global credit crisis, while other operations managed to show profit growth despite economic and market turbulence.
The financial arm known as GE Capital earned a profit of 2.02 billion dollars, but that was a 33 percent drop rom a year ago.
The GE unit "is not immune from the current environment, (but) we continued to outperform our financial services peers," chairman and chief executive Jeff Immelt said.
The overall results "are fully in line with guidance, and we have continued to take decisive steps to strengthen GE in a tough environment."
The profit amounted to 43 cents per share, or 45 cents excluding one-time gains and losses, in line with market expectations.
Revenues for the period rose 11 percent to 47.2 billion dollars, slightly below analyst forecasts.
Because of its big financial operations, GE has been affected by the credit squeeze and meltdown in real estate. Its overall operations are seen as a reflection of the US and sometimes the global economy.
GE has raised 15 billion dollars in capital "that makes the company more secure in the short term, but could be used to play offense in the long term," Immelt said.
Earlier this month, tycoon Warren Buffett agreed to invest three billion dollars in GE, expressing confidence in the company's long-term outlook.
In July, GE announced a new "simplified" organizational structure around four core segments as it set the stage for a spinoff of its consumer and appliance businesses.
GE's divisions include Technology Infrastructure, which includes health care, aviation and transportation; and GE Energy Infrastructure, making generators, wind turbines and other equipment for the energy sector.
GE Capital, another of the new segments, includes financial services including commercial finance and GE Money consumer finance.
GE also controls NBC Universal, the media-entertainment powerhouse that includes NBC television and Universal Pictures.
The energy division saw a 31 percent operating profit increase to 1.425 billion dollars in the quarter as revenues grew 32 percent.
The technology infrastructure division managed a two percent rise in operating earnings to 1.9 billion dollars on a nine percent revenue increase.
NBC Universal saw revenues grow 35 percent and operating profits up 10 percent to 645 million dollars, helped by the Summer Olympics broadcasts by the NBC network.
"Cable and films had a solid quarter, and the success of the Beijing Olympics showed the value of the network model," Immelt said.
GE shares rose modestly by 0.74 percent in morning trade despite a wide market selloff
"Caught up with concerns about the economic outlook, the market is still questioning whether GE will be able to live up to earnings expectations for the fourth quarter and next year," analysts at Briefing.com said.
- AFP/vm
|
