As part of its strategy to simplify its portfolio, strengthen its balance sheet and position its businesses to succeed, this week GE announced further progress on its $20 billion of announced dispositions.
The company completed the sale of its Distributed Power business and announced agreements to sell two other units, including its intelligent environments unit, Current, powered by GE. The sale and agreements come as GE is experiencing increased global market share in its gas turbine business, according to new market data released this week.
GE Completes Sale Of Its Gas Engine Business For $3.25 Billion, Inks Syngas Deal
GE and the private equity group Advent International completed Advent’s $3.25 billion acquisition of GE’s Distributed Power business. The unit, now rebranded as INNIO, is best known for manufacturing the Jenbacher and Waukesha gas engines that generate electricity for thousands of towns, factories and other facilities around the world.
The largest Jenbacher machine can generate as much as 10 megawatts, enough to supply a small town. Waukesha engines typically serve the midstream oil and gas industry segment and can operate in harsh and remote environments.
In addition, Air Products announced on Monday that it would acquire GE’s gasification business, which makes systems that generate energy-rich synthesis gas, or syngas. Jenbacher and other engines can use this syngas as fuel to produce electricity. The acquisition includes over 1,000 patents relating to GE’s gasification technology, as well as GE’s share in a joint venture with a subsidiary of the China Energy Group.
Read more about the transactions here.
GE To Sell Current, Its Intelligent Environments Unit
GE announced on Tuesday an agreement to sell its intelligent environments unit, Current, powered by GE, to the private equity firm American Industrial Partners. “AIP’s deep expertise in operations and engineering, combined with its highly successful track record of industrial business investments, would help us accelerate Current’s growth,” said Maryrose Sylvester, Current’s president and CEO. “We look forward to partnering with the AIP team to further establish Current as a leader in the rapidly growing [Internet of Things] lighting space.”
GE launched Current three years ago when it combined some of its energy management and digital assets as an in-house startup. Current has been developing tools to reduce electricity costs for customers by installing smart LEDs and controls technologies at their facilities, and embedding them with sensors that can track energy usage, room temperature, movement, sound and air quality, and other factors. By analyzing the data and linking everything with software, Current can help factories, stores, offices and even cities lower their energy bills and operate smarter. Current customers include Walmart, General Motors, JPMorgan Chase, the cities of San Diego and Jacksonville, and others.
Read more about the proposed transaction here.
GE’s Gas Turbine Market Share Jumps In Third Quarter
The research company McCoy Power Reports released its latest analysis of the global gas turbine market. GE led other major competitors with 51 percent of market share by gigawatts across all segments in the third quarter of 2018. It also led the way in unit count, capturing 35 percent of gas turbines ordered during the first nine months of the year.
“We’re proud of the confidence that customers continue to show in our products and technology — especially our flagship HA gas turbine, which remains the fastest-growing fleet of turbines in the world today, with 83 orders by 35 customers in 16 countries,” said Russell Stokes, president and CEO of GE Power.
For important information about our forward-looking statements, please see here.
COOLEST THINGS ON EARTH ?
1 Space travelers
An international group of scientists published a letter in the New England Journal of Medicine detailing changes in brain tissue observed in 10 cosmonauts who spent, on average, 189 days on the International Space Station. Researchers are working to understand the impact of space flight on the body in order to pinpoint the problems scientists need to solve before humans set out for Mars and beyond.
2 Skin grafts
A collaboration between Singapore-based Duke-NUS Medical School and Singapore General Hospital has yielded a way to culture human skin cells in a lab that could be used as safe, effective skin grafts. The development could improve options for patients suffering from severe burns and other skin defects.
3 Walk again
Scientists at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne and the Lausanne University Hospital, both in Switzerland, have designed a wireless implant that creates electric stimulation and helps patients with paraplegia walk again. The next step is making the tech available to hospitals and clinics everywhere to help with rehabilitation. The scientists behind it hope it can be used shortly after injury, before muscle atrophy occurs.
Find out more in this week’s Coolest Things on Earth.
— QUOTE OF THE DAY —
“We’re proud of the confidence that customers continue to show in our products and technology — especially our flagship HA gas turbine, which remains the fastest-growing fleet of turbines in the world today, with 83 orders by 35 customers in 16 countries.”
— Russell Stokes, president and CEO of GE Power
Quote: GE Reports. Image: INNIO.
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