GEC news item,nice to have 12.9 billion coming soon
Good Morning everyone, I hope all had a great Thanksgiving,
U.K.'s GEC's 1st half profit rises 51 pct
Shares surge; Group awaits rebirth as tech company
By Gareth Vaughan, CBS MarketWatch
Last Update: 7:47 AM ET Nov 25, 1999
NewsWatch
LONDON (CBS.MW) -- Shares in Britain's General Electric Co. PLC surged nearly 9 percent after it posted a 51 percent rise in first half operating profit Thursday.
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Updated:
11/25/99 5:44:18 AM ET
Shares in the defense and engineering group, which is reinventing itself as a telecom equipment maker, surged 69.5 pence to 858.5 in London trading.
General Electric Co. (GEC) is selling its defense unit to British Aerospace PLC, has made several acquisitions in the technology sector, and is renaming itself Marconi PLC.
GEC's operating profit before exceptional items and goodwill amortization -- excluding its defense arm -- for the six months to Sep. 30, rose to $482.3 million (299 million pounds) from $319.4 million (198 million pounds) in the same period of 1998.
"The heavy rationalization and refocusing stage is over, our global communications platform is established and communications growth is accelerating," GEC's CEO, George Simpson, said in a statement.
"In a few days time, Marconi won't just hit the ground running, it'll take off as Europe's brightest technology company," Simpson added.
GEC also said it's acquiring the public networks communications technology unit of Germany's Bosch Telecom GmbH for 95 million pounds. This move continues the British group's recent spate of acquisitions.
Back in April, GEC agreed to buy Fore Systems Inc. (FORE: news, msgs) of the U.S., a computer networking switch maker, for $4.5 billion. See full story. The British group also bought Reltec Corp (RLT: news, msgs) -- a U.S. leader in the design, manufacture and sale of telecom network products -- for $2.1 billion in March.See story. Then in August, GEC picked-up Israeli-based RDC, an Internet company.
GEC's revenue -- minus that of its defense unit -- rose 40 percent to 2.5 billion pounds from 1.8 billion pounds. Earnings per share rose 16 percent to 7.4 pence from 6.4 pence. The dividend is 1.8 pence versus 4.2 pence.
GEC will be reclassified on the London Stock Exchange as an IT company -- named Marconi -- and plans to list on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange in the U.S. by the middle of next year.
Back in January, GEC struck a deal to sell its defense arm to British Aerospace for the equivalent of $12.9 billion. See full story. The sale will be completed next week.
*One pound equals $1.6130 based on late London prices Wednesday. |
