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Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements Note 18: Borrowings (Restated)

SHORT-TERM BORROWINGS

  2004   2003  
December 31 (Dollars in millions) Amount   Average rate(a)   Amount   Average rate(a)  
GE                        
Commercial paper                        
U.S. $     % $ 1,149     1.08 %
Non-U.S.   131     2.52     340     2.72  
Payable to banks, principally non-U.S   272     3.34     388     4.89  
Current portion of long-term debt   2,698     2.33     392     2.58  
Other   308           286        
    3,409           2,555        
GECS                        
Commercial paper                        
U.S.                        
Unsecured   62,694     2.24     65,536     1.11  
Asset-backed(b)   13,842     2.17     21,998     1.12  
Non-U.S.   20,835     2.96     15,062     2.93  
Current portion of long-term debt(c)   37,530     4.22     38,338     3.37  
Other   19,890           14,505        
    154,791           155,439        
ELIMINATIONS   (506 )         (626 )      
Total $ 157,694         $ 157,368        
(a) Based on year-end balances and year-end local currency interest rates. Current portion of long-term debt included the effects of interest rate and currency swaps, if any, directly associated with the original debt issuance.
(b) Entirely obligations of consolidated, liquidating securitization entities. See note 29.
(c) Included short-term borrowings by consolidated, liquidating securitization entities of $756 million and $482 million at December 31, 2004 and 2003, respectively.

LONG-TERM BORROWINGS

December 31 (Dollars in millions) 2004 Average
rate(a)
    Maturities   2004   2003  
GE                        
Senior notes   5.00 %   2013   $ 4,984   $ 7,483  
Industrial development/pollution control bonds   2.28     2006-2027     307     331  
Payable to banks, principally U.S.(b)   3.42     2006-2018     1,927     212  
Other(c)               407     362  
                7,625     8,388  
GECS                        
Senior notes                        
Unsecured   3.87     2006-2055     179,692     148,701  
Asset-backed(d)   4.15     2006-2035     10,939     1,948  
Extendible notes(e)   2.40     2007-2009     14,258     12,591  
Subordinated notes(f)   7.44     2006-2035     1,119     1,262  
                206,008     164,502  
ELIMINATIONS               (963 )   (924 )
Total             $ 212,670   $ 171,966  
(a) Based on year-end balances and year-end local currency interest rates, including the effects of interest rate and currency swaps, if any, directly associated with the original debt issuance.
(b) Included $1,670 million of debt resulting from the VUE transaction.
(c) A variety of obligations having various interest rates and maturities, including certain borrowings by parent operating components and affiliates.
(d) Asset-backed senior notes are all issued by consolidated, liquidating securitization entities as discussed in note 29. The amount related to Australian Financial Investments Group (AFIG), a 2004 acquisition, was $9,769 million.
(e) Included obligations of consolidated, liquidating securitization entities in the amount of $267 million and $362 million at December 31, 2004 and 2003, respectively.
(f) At year-end 2004 and 2003, $1.0 billion of subordinated notes were guaranteed by GE.

Our borrowings are addressed below from the perspectives of liquidity, interest rate and currency risk management. Additional information about borrowings and associated swaps can be found in note 28.

LIQUIDITY is affected by debt maturities and our ability to repay or refinance such debt. Restated long-term debt maturities over the next five years follow.

(In millions)   2005     2006     2007   2008   2009  
GE $ 2,698   $ 150   $ 1,858 $ 26 $ 20  
GECS   37,530  (a)   53,960  (b)   28,958   20,864   26,528  
(a) Floating rate extendible notes of $244 million are due in 2005, but are extendible at the investors’ option to a final maturity in 2008. Floating rate notes of $482 million contain put options with exercise dates in 2005, but have final maturity dates greater than 2010.
(b) Floating rate extendible notes of $14.0 billion are due in 2006, but are extendible at the investors’ option to a final maturity in 2007 ($12.0 billion) and 2009 ($2.0 billion).

Committed credit lines totaling $57.3 billion had been extended to us by 83 banks at year-end 2004. Included in this amount was $47.4 billion provided directly to GECS and $9.9 billion provided by 21 banks to GE, to which GECS also has access. The GECS lines include $19.2 billion of revolving credit agreements under which we can borrow funds for periods exceeding one year. The remaining $38.1 billion are 364-day lines of which $37.6 billion contain a term-out feature that allows GECS to extend the borrowings for one year from the date of expiration of the lending agreement. We pay banks for credit facilities, but compensation amounts were insignificant in each of the past three years.

INTEREST RATE AND CURRENCY RISK is managed through the direct issuance of debt or use of derivatives. We take positions in view of anticipated behavior of assets, including prepayment behavior. We use a variety of instruments, including interest rate and currency swaps and currency forwards, to achieve our interest rate objectives. The following table shows GECS borrowing positions considering the effects of currency and interest rate swaps.

GECS EFFECTIVE BORROWINGS (INCLUDING SWAPS)

  2004   2003  
December 31 (Dollars in millions) Amount   Average rate   Amount  
Short-term(a) $ 91,253     2.52 % $ 88,499  
Long-term (including current portion)                  
Fixed rate(b) $ 157,703     4.58 % $ 137,901  
Floating rate   111,843     3.12     93,541  
Total long-term $ 269,546         $ 231,442  
(a) Included commercial paper and other short-term debt.
(b) Included fixed-rate borrowings and $24.1 billion ($28.2 billion in 2003) notional long-term interest rate swaps that effectively convert the floating-rate nature of short-term borrowings to fixed rates of interest.

At December 31, 2004, interest rate swap maturities ranged from 2005 to 2048, including swap maturities for hedges of commercial paper that ranged from 2005 to 2024. The use of commercial paper swaps allows us to match our actual asset profile more efficiently and provides more flexibility as it does not depend on investor demand for particular maturities.

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