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Strategies & Market Trends : Paint The Table -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jcky who wrote (11851)	1/28/2002 5:53:14 PM
From: MulhollandDrive	Respond to of 23786

One word....."Plastics" dailynews.yahoo.com Monday January 28 12:46 PM ET GE's Immelt Sees No U.S. Upturn Till 2003 By Jennifer Laidlaw and David Lawsky BRUSSELS (Reuters) - General Electric Co's plastics order book suggests the U.S economy is not likely to begin improving until next year, Chief Executive Officer Jeff Immelt said on Monday. Immelt told Reuters after a speech in Brussels that he watches GE's plastics business as a guide to wider economic performance in the future because plastics use pervades industry and it has a short business cycle. ``Customers' inventories are very low, but we haven't seen order rates start picking up yet and that's our leading indicator,'' he said in the interview. Immelt added that historical patterns suggested the recession would end by 2003. Despite challenging economic conditions, Immelt said his company would expand investment in Europe at the same time as establishing a European headquarters in Brussels. Immelt said the company was interested in expanding its healthcare, aircraft engines and power systems businesses, its CNBC business television channel and its financial arm, GE Capital. Immelt said the company was likely to stick with the businesses it already knows ``without getting into a completely different industry. I don't think that's something we need to do short term.'' Immelt, who took the helm of the world's largest company by market capitalization on September 7 from the legendary Jack Welch, was in Brussels to speak to a business group. While Welch was still at the helm, the European Commission (news - web sites) last year created controversy by blocking GE's proposed $45 billion purchase of Honeywell International. GE declined to comment directly on the possibility of purchasing French electrical equipment maker Legrand, which must be divested by rival Schneider Electric, to comply with a European Commission ruling. But a spokeswoman said GE is ''always looking for opportunities.'' LOOKING AT TYCO Immelt said the company was continuing to evaluate the break-up plans of conglomerate Tyco International Ltd as a possible acquisition target. Tyco said earlier this month that it would restructure the conglomerate into four independent, publicly-traded companies. It also plans to sell its plastics business and would entertain offers to buy other businesses, which include healthcare, electronics, security and fire protection. ``We just don't know that much about the company, but clearly it's a situation we will look at,'' he said, characterizing any decision about a purchase as premature. Immelt said that research and development was essential to the company's continued strong growth and was necessary as the firm increases its number of products by 25 percent this year. GE said earlier this month that it would spend $100 million to renovate its research and development headquarters in upstate New York. GE executives said they would particularly like to boost their position in Germany and were also looking east to Russia. ``We have to improve our position in Germany,'' said Ferdinando Beccalli, the new president and chief executive of GE Europe, which will have headquarters in Brussels. Immelt also said the company was looking at the Russian market for potential investments and that while there were no plans to build a factory the country had a highly educated population and good natural resources, ``two things that go at some point with prosperity.'' Despite the recession, GE managed to post a 9.7 percent rise in fourth quarter earnings and said earlier this month that it would meet its previously stated goal of increasing earnings by 17 percent to 18 percent in 2002. Shares in GE closed at $38.27 on the New York Stock Exchange (news - web sites) on Friday. Over the last year they have fallen 14 percent.