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Press Release

GE Completes Global Acquisition of LM Wind Power and Extends its Business in Poland

May 16, 2017
  • Insourcing of blade manufacturing to strengthen GE’s supply chain, increase competitiveness and deliver greater value to customers
  • LM Wind Power to continue supplying wind blades to all industry players
  • Deal to be accretive to GE earnings in 2018

PARIS, WARSAW - May 11, 2017 GE (NYSE:GE) the world’s leading Digital Industrial company, announced that it has completed the acquisition of LM Wind Power, a Denmark-based technology developer and manufacturer of rotor blades to the wind industry. The completion of the transaction follows regulatory approval in the European Union, the United States, China, and Brazil. As a result GE's contribution to the Polish power industry increased.

“GE has already been successfully operating in Poland for 25 years and today we are happy to extend our business and our footprint here. With this milestone acquisition of LM Wind Power we have confirmed our long-term commitment to the development of the Polish economy and our position of the leader in the energy sector in the country. As a result of this siginificant investement GE will be able to cover the entire power energy value chain in Poland and the Region. It will also enhance our production capabilities in Poland as one of the LM Wind Power production facilities, in fact the leading one within the whole organization, is located in Goleniów, the West Pomeranian Voivodeship” - comments Beata Stelmach, GE CEO for Poland and Baltics. 

Goleniów LM Wind Power Blades has a long track-record in the wind industry. It has been operating since 2008 and currently employs more than 800 people. The facility is preparing for further extensions of its production capabilities that will be achieved due to the further technology advancement, enabling to manufacture even the longest rotor blades. As agreed, the production facility will be run as a standalone plant contributing to GE’s business and will have an access to GE’s digital industrial capabilities. The new Polish acquisition gives also new opportunities for GE - the company has not had the rotor blades industry in its inventory yet.

GE reached an agreement with the London-based private equity firm Doughty Hanson in October 2016 to purchase the company for €1.5 billion ($1.65 billion). The transaction in-sources wind turbine blade design and manufacturing for GE’s Renewable Energy business, improving its ability to increase energy output and create value for onshore and offshore wind customers. The deal will be accretive to GE earnings in 2018. 

Jérôme Pécresse, President and CEO of GE Renewable Energy, said, “The completion of the LM Wind Power acquisition provides us with the operational efficiencies necessary to support the growth of our wind turbine business, which is the fastest growing segment of power generation. With LM’s technology and blade engineering, we are now able to improve the overall performance of our wind turbines, lowering the cost of electricity and increasing the value for our customers. Together, we are set to capitalize on the expansion of renewable energy and be a growth engine for GE.”

Marc de Jong, CEO of LM Wind Power, said, “LM Wind Power has had a long-standing partnership with GE that has yielded many innovations and commercial successes, including the installation of the first-ever offshore wind farm in the United States. We see many digital and advanced manufacturing technology capabilities that will help accelerate our technology development and increase our customer reach.”

LM Wind Power will be run as an individual operating unit within GE Renewable Energy, providing blades for both GE’s onshore and offshore wind business units. LM Wind Power will also continue to supply blades to the rest of the wind industry, having established protocols and safeguards to protect customers’ confidential data. 

With this deal, GE continues to deepen its capabilities and ambitions in renewable energy. In the past year, GE has delivered the first offshore wind farm in the US, won its first offshore project in China, launched its onshore digital wind farm and digital hydro plant, and developed hybrid projects in wind-solar and hydro-wind. 

GE’s goal is to deliver renewable energy projects locally that maximize electricity output while reducing the cost of electricity, bringing affordable, sustainable energy to the world and more value for its customers. 

For more information on the deal visit www.gerenewableenergy.com 

GE Renewable Energy

GE Renewable Energy is a $10 billion start-up that brings together one of the broadest product and service portfolios of the renewable energy industry. Combining onshore and offshore wind, hydro and innovative technologies such as concentrated solar power, GE Renewable Energy has installed more than 400+ gigawatts capacity globally to make the world work better and cleaner. With more than 12,000 employees present in more than 55 countries, GE Renewable Energy is backed by the resources of the world’s first digital industrial company. Our goal is to demonstrate to the rest of the world that nobody should ever have to choose between affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy. Follow us @GERenewables

GE

GE is the world’s Digital Industrial Company, transforming industry with software-defined machines and solutions that are connected, responsive and predictive. GE is organized around a global exchange of knowledge, the “GE Store”, through which each business shares and accesses the same technology, markets, structure and intellect. Each invention further fuels innovation and application across our industrial sectors. With people, services, technology and scale, GE delivers better outcomes for customers by speaking the language of industry.

GE in Poland

GE entered the Polish market in 1992. It currently employs 7,300 people in the industrial sector. LM Wind Power joins the GE Group in Poland that owns, among other things, three plants specializing in the manufacture of electric products (in Kłodzko, Łódź and Bielsko-Biała), two facilities of GE Aviation (Dzierżoniów and Bielsko-Biała) and three GE power plants (a turbine manufacturing plant and foundry in Elbląg and a generator manufacturing plant in Wrocław). The EDC (Engineering Design Centre) has also been operating in Warsaw for 16 years. It was founded as a partnership between GE and the Institute of Aviation. Since 1992 the company has invested USD 670 million in Poland and its annual expenditure on research and development is about USD 100 million.

Find out more about GE at www.ge.com/pl and Twitter @GE_Polska and @PStracar_GECEE

Contact us for further information: 

24/7 Communication

Marta Kosińska 

Tel.: + 48 508 617 839

Email: [email protected]


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