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Tag: General Electric

  • General Electric to invest $150m in Nigeria

    General Electric to invest $150m in Nigeria

    The united States industrial firm General Electric (GE) plans to invest around $150 million in Nigeria by 2017, a senior executive said.

    “There are development projects where we are investing,” Jay Ireland, chief executive of General Electric in Africa told the FT Africa Summit in London. GE would also invest in oil and gas industry projects.

    Growth in Nigeria – an OPEC member whose economy, the largest in Africa, is in recession for the first time in more than 20 years due to low oil prices – has been stunted for decades by a lack of investment in its road and rail network.

    Ireland said the Nigeria investment was part of a plan to spend $2 billion in Africa in coming years. But the $150 million Nigerian investment falls short of the sum Nigeria’s government has said GE would invest.

    President Muhammadu Buhari, on Saturday in a speech marking Nigeria’s independence day, said GE was “investing $2.2 billion in a concession to revamp, provide rolling stock, and manage” some of the country’s railway lines.

  • General Electric may win EU approval for $14b Alstom deal

    General Electric (GE.N) is expected to secure approval from European Union antitrust regulators for its proposed 12.4 billion euro ($13.8 billion) deal to buy French peer Alstom’s (ALSO.PA) power business, two people familiar with the matter said on Friday.

    The green light from the European Commission will come 14 years after it rejected General Electric’s (GE) attempt at a $42 billion takeover of Honeywell International (HON.N), despite clearance by U.S. authorities.

    The U.S. conglomerate, which offered concessions to head off the commission’s worries about the company’s largest ever acquisition, improved its package last week.

    “GE is likely to get approval,” one of the sources said.

    The second source said GE had offered to divest some manufacturing and services activities and research and development units around the world, including a facility in Switzerland and Alstom’s Power Systems Manufacturing operation.

    The people said Italian company Ansaldo Energia was seen as the preferred buyer for the assets.

    Commission spokesman Ricardo Cardoso declined to comment.

    GE spokesman Jim Healy said: “We submitted a remedy package that addresses the commission’s concerns and preserves the economic rationale of the deal.”

    An Alstom spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.

     

  • General Electric to sell $26.5b property portfolio

    General Electric to sell $26.5b property portfolio

    General Electric (GE) has announced it will sell nearly all of its property portfolio, worth $26.5billiosn, to funds including Wells Fargo and Blackstone.

    The sale is the biggest commercial property deal in the US since 2007.

    GE has been retreating from its property investments globally as it focuses on its industrial operations.

    Without its properties, the company says it expects its other, “high-value” operations to bring in 90 per cent of earnings by 2018.

    The plan allows GE to buy back nearly two billion of its outstanding shares. A further $4billion of commercial real estate assets will be sold to other buyers.

    GE said it hoped the divestment would make it a “simpler, more valuable” company.

    Chairman Jeff Immelt said: “This is a major step in our strategy to focus GE around its competitive advantages.”

    The US-based company’s operations include energy management, aviation and transportation.

  • ‘Why General Electric dominates power sector’

    former Minister of  Power  Prof. Bart Nnaji has said the huge investment of General Electric (GE) in the nation’s economy has encouraged local manufacturing of turbine power equipment, training of local engineers and job creation.

    He explained that the multinational was known to be a major supplier of many power equipment to the Federal Government.

    According to him, GE was persuaded through a partnership to manufacture some of the imported power equipment in the country, invest in the economy and train local engineers who have become experts to other nations.

    He spoke during Conference of National Higher Education Stakeholders, organised by TELL, Tetfund and Federal Ministry of Education yesterday in Abuja.

    Nnaji said: “When I was power minister, I will use GE as an example. They have sold so many turbines power equipment to Nigeria. They said they want us to work together, but I said we will develop an agreement, you will not only sell power equipment, you will also invest in Nigeria, train and manufacture some of your turbines in Nigeria.

  • Why GE dominates Nigerian power sector – Barth Nnaji

    Why GE dominates Nigerian power sector – Barth Nnaji

    A former Minister of Power, Prof. Bart Nnaji, has explained why a notable multinational power company, General Electric, has dominated the nation’s power sector.

    Nnaji said the company’s huge investment in the nation’s economy has encouraged local manufacturing of turbine power equipment, training of local engineers and job creation.

    He explained that the multinational firm was known to be major supplier of many turbine power equipment to the Federal Government, without training indigenous engineers and investing in the country.

    According to him, GE was persuaded through a partnership to manufacture some of the imported power equipment in the country, invest in the economy and train local engineers who have become experts to other nations.

    He spoke during a Conference of National Higher Education Stakeholders, organised by TELL, Tetfund and Federal Ministry of Education on Monday in Abuja.

    Nnaji said,” When I was a minister, I will use general electric as an example. They have sold so many turbines power equipment to Nigeria. They said they want us to work together, but I said we will develop an agreement, you will not only sell us power equipment, you will also invest in Nigeria, train and manufacture some of your turbines in Nigeria.

    “They said they are not used to that and has never invested in Africa. I said you can, Nigeria is a huge country. Then we developed how investment will work. If you invest 15 percent of equity in a company, when the project completes, you sell your equity and move on to other developments and they agreed. The chairman came and we signed an agreement. That is why GE came and dominated the sector and the people in it are Nigerians. The President of GE Nigeria is a Nigerian. That is the way things should be done.”

    Speaking on the need for research, he advised government to do more by funding research projects to industrialise the country.

     

  • Ground breaking ceremony of the General Electric manufacturing facility in Calabar

    Ground breaking ceremony of the General Electric manufacturing facility in Calabar