Hold the parent, buy the spinoff

Article Excerpt

Over the span of 100 years, General Electric became one of the world’s largest conglomerates through a series of acquisitions, including many that were outside its main electrical products businesses such as insurance and broadcast TV networks. After the 2008 financial crisis, GE decided to unwind its financial services businesses. It also expanded its industrial operations by forming three 50/50 joint ventures in 2016 with France’s Alstom SA; one of those joint ventures combined their electrical grid operations, while a second one focused on products for renewable energy projects; a third involved Alstom’s nuclear power equipment division. Those businesses did not work out as well as GE had hoped. As a result, it’s now breaking up in to three separate firms. It has already spun off its healthcare products business as GE HealthCare, and will spin off its renewable energy and power operations as GE Verona in 2024. The remaining firm, called GE Aerospace, will focus on jet engines and other aircraft…