GE announced Tuesday that it intends to spin off its healthcare business, just days after the company was bounced from the Dow Jones Industrial average, a spot it had held continuously for more than 110 years.
The company also plans to sell its interest in Baker Hughes, a that provides drilling services for the oil and gas industry.
Following a strategic review of its business, GE said it plans to focus on aviation, power, and renewable energy, “creating a simpler, stronger, leading high-tech industrial company.”
The company plans to separate GE Healthcare into a standalone business, pursue an orderly separation from Baker Hughes over the next two to three years, make its corporate structure leaner, and substantially reduce debt.
GE Chairman and CEO John Flannery told investors that separating the units will allow them to pursue their own growth strategies. The GE board unanimously approved the plans.
GE Healthcare recorded more than $19 billion in revenues in 2017 and posted 5 percent revenue growth and 9 percent segment profit growth in the same year. It recorded $19 billion operating profit.
The business provides medical imaging (including contrast agents), monitoring, biomanufacturing, and cell therapy technology, leveraging digital, artificial intelligence, and data analytics capabilities. Its products and services are available in 140 countries around the world.
GE said it expects to generate cash from the disposition of approximately 20 percent of its interest in healthcare and to distribute the remaining 80 percent to GE shareholders through a tax-free distribution.
The timing of the announced transactions will be determined at a later date, but are expected to be completed over the next 12 to 18 months, according to the company.
GE Healthcare is expected to conduct business as usual throughout the process.
(Sources: GE, Associated Press; AP Photo/John Minchillo)
