GE, the largest industrial company in the United States, reported its eighth consecutive quarter of operating earnings growth in Q1 2012.
While total revenue fell 8 percent to $35.2 billion compared with the same quarter of 2011, this year’s figures do not include revenues from NBC Universal, in which a majority stake has been sold to Comcast.
Excluding NBC Universal’s contribution to Q1 2011 shows revenues up by four percent. Revenues from GE’s industrial segment rose 14 percent to $23.7 billion. The company said it was on track to deliver double digit earnings growth in 2012 for both industrial businesses and GE Capital.
“Today’s results demonstrate that we are achieving industrial growth and GE Capital continues to grow stronger,” said GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt. “This quarter we witnessed broad-based strength in orders across all our infrastructure businesses and in both equipment and services.
“We see encouraging leading indicators driven by global growth. Our strategy to invest in technology and global growth platforms continues to produce results with 11 percent organic industrial segment revenue growth and 10 percent industrial segment profit growth in the first quarter.”
GE Capital’s first quarter earnings were $1.8 billion, flat from last year, but up 27 percent excluding the Garanti sale impact on Q1 2011. The company believes that GE Capital’s strong business performance should continue for the year.
Infrastructure orders were a record high for the first quarter at $23.1 billion, up 20 percent from the prior year. Industrial growth market orders were up 21 percent, while industrial segment revenues grew 17 percent in the US.
Orders for the quarter included one from South Africa’s Transnet for 43 new Model C30ACi locomotives, bringing the total number of GE locomotives ordered to 143 since December 2009.
GE Oil & Gas received orders of $1 billion to supply a wide range of equipment and services for the Ichthys liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Australia. Also, GE received commitments for GEnx-1B engines from Kenya Airways valued at $380 million.
“We had a strong performance to kick off the year and the leading indicators support our 2012 framework,” concluded Immelt. “We are prepared for a variety of global outcomes which positions us to deliver for our investors in 2012 and beyond.”
