PITTSBURGH, Nov 21 - General Electric Co said Thursday it was talking with Asian investment funds about forming global partnerships similar to a joint venture with an Abu Dhabi government investment firm announced earlier this year.
The conglomerate, which makes jet engines, water treatment systems and owns NBC Universal, was discussing possible partnerships with sovereign wealth funds in China and Singapore, said Elma Peters, a GE spokeswoman in Brussels.
The funds include China Investment Corp., Government of Singapore Investment Corp, Temasek Holdings Pte of Singapore and China Safe Investments Ltd, she said.
GE’s stock dipped $1.57, or nearly 11 per cent, to $12.88 in afternoon trading. Earlier in the session, the shares plunged to $12.58 — their lowest level since May 1996.
The talks follow GE’s announcement of a joint venture this summer with Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Development Co, a sovereign wealth fund in the Middle East, Peters said.
GE’s chief executive, Jeffrey Immelt, “is talking about a similar deal” with the Asian sovereign wealth funds, Peters said.
In July, GE and Mubadala said they had agreed to create a jointly owned commercial finance venture, with each allocating $4 billion in equity over a three-year period.
The $8 billion venture, headquartered in Abu Dhabi, aims to expand GE’s opportunities around the globe, especially in the Middle East and Africa, and will have targeted assets of more than $40 billion.
GE also said at the time that it planned to commit up to $50 million for global investments in clean technology and companies that reduce dependency on traditional energy sources.
Additionally, Mubadala intended to invest up to $200 million in GE Industrial Investment Partners, a new partnership of global investors that would provide capital to companies in the health care, energy and transportation industries.
A company spokesman at GE’s Fairfield, Connecticut, headquarters, Gary Sheffer, said in a statement that GE was not seeking a capital investment in the company.
In October, billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said it would buy $3 billion worth of GE preferred shares, which carry a hefty 10-percent dividend.
On Tuesday, GE said it was reorganising its ailing finance business, GE Capital, to save $2 billion next year.
GE said the plan will require job cuts the and will shrink a lending operation battered by the global credit crisis. - AP
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