Ge Power
Ge Power
Capital
(a) Beginning in the third quarter of 2016, the former Energy Connections and Appliances & Lighting segments are presented as one reporting
segment called Energy Connections & Lighting. This segment includes historical results of the Appliances business prior to its sale in June 2016.
Business, operation and financial overviews for our operating segments are provided in the Segment Operations section within the
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations (MD&A) section.
In all of our global business activities, we encounter aggressive and able competition. In many instances, the competitive climate is
characterized by changing technology that requires continuing research and development. With respect to manufacturing operations,
we believe that, in general, we are one of the leading firms in most of the major industries in which we participate. The businesses in
which GE Capital engages are subject to competition from various types of financial institutions, including commercial banks,
investment banks, leasing companies, independent finance companies, finance companies associated with manufacturers and
insurance and reinsurance companies.
As a diverse global company, we are affected by world economies, instability in certain regions, commodity prices, such as the price of
oil, and foreign currency volatility. Other factors impacting our business include:
x product development cycles for many of our products are long and product quality and efficiency are critical to success,
x research and development expenditures are important to our business and
x many of our products are subject to a number of regulatory standards.
At year-end 2016, General Electric Company and consolidated affiliates employed approximately 295,000 persons, of whom
approximately 104,000 were employed in the United States. For further information about employees, see the Other Financial Data
section within the MD&A.
Approximately 9,300 GE manufacturing and service employees in the United States are represented for collective bargaining purposes
by one of 9 unions (approximately 48 different locals within such unions). A majority of such employees are represented by union locals
that are affiliated with the IUE-CWA, The Industrial Division of the Communication Workers of America, AFL-CIO, CLC. In June 2015,
we negotiated new four-year collective bargaining agreements with most of our U.S unions. These agreements continue to provide
employees with good wages and benefits while addressing competitive realities facing the Company.
Other GE affiliates are parties to labor contracts with various labor unions, also with varying terms and expiration dates that cover
approximately 1,700 employees.
PROPERTIES
Manufacturing operations are carried out at 184 manufacturing plants located in 38 states in the United States and Puerto Rico and at
325 manufacturing plants located in 40 other countries.
GE’s Internet address at www.ge.com, Investor Relations website at www.ge.com/investor-relations and our corporate blog at
www.gereports.com, as well as GE’s Facebook page, Twitter accounts and other social media, including @GE_Reports, contain a
significant amount of information about GE, including financial and other information for investors. GE encourages investors to visit
these websites from time to time, as information is updated and new information is posted.
Website references in this report are provided as a convenience and do not constitute, and should not be viewed as, incorporation by
reference of the information contained on, or available through, the websites. Therefore, such information should not be considered part
of this report.
Our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports are
available, without charge, on our website, www.ge.com/investor-relations/events-reports, as soon as reasonably practicable after they
are filed electronically with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Copies are also available, without charge, from GE
Corporate Investor Communications, 41 Farnsworth Street, Boston, MA 02210.
Reports filed with the SEC may be viewed at www.sec.gov or obtained at the SEC Public Reference Room in Washington, D.C.
Information about the operation of the Public Reference Room may be obtained by calling the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330.
We believe that investors will gain a better understanding of our company if they understand how we measure and talk about our
results. Because of the diversity in our businesses, we present our financial statements in a three-column format, which allows
investors to see our industrial operations separately from our Financial Services operations. We believe that this provides useful
information to investors. When used in this report, unless otherwise indicated by the context, we use the terms to mean the following:
x General Electric or the Company – the parent company, General Electric Company.
x GE – the adding together of all affiliates except GE Capital, whose continuing operations are presented on a one-line basis, giving
effect to the elimination of transactions among such affiliates. Transactions between GE and GE Capital have not been eliminated
at the GE level. We present the results of GE in the center column of our consolidated statements of earnings, financial position
and cash flows. An example of a GE metric is GE cash from operating activities (GE CFOA).
x General Electric Capital Corporation or GECC – predecessor to GE Capital Global Holdings, LLC.
x GE Capital Global Holdings, LLC or GECGH – the adding together of all affiliates of GECGH, giving effect to the elimination of
transactions among such affiliates.
x GE Capital or Financial Services – refers to GECGH, or its predecessor GECC, and is the adding together of all affiliates of GE
Capital giving effect to the elimination of transactions among such affiliates. We present the results of GE Capital in the right-side
column of our consolidated statements of earnings, financial position and cash flows.
x GE consolidated – the adding together of GE and GE Capital, giving effect to the elimination of transactions between the two. We
present the results of GE consolidated in the left-side column of our consolidated statements of earnings, financial position and
cash flows.
x Industrial – GE excluding the continuing operations of GE Capital. We believe that this provides investors with a view as to the
results of our industrial businesses and corporate items. An example of an Industrial metric is Industrial CFOA (Non-GAAP), which
is GE CFOA excluding the effects of dividends from GE Capital.
x Industrial segment – the sum of our seven industrial reporting segments, without giving effect to the elimination of transactions
among such segments and between these segments and our Financial Services segment. This provides investors with a view as to
the results of our industrial segments, without inter-segment eliminations and corporate items. An example of an industrial segment
metric is industrial segment revenue growth.
x Total segment – the sum of our seven industrial segments and one financial services segment, without giving effect to the
elimination of transactions between such segments. This provides investors with a view as to the results of all of our segments,
without inter-segment eliminations and corporate items.
x Verticals or GE Capital Verticals – the adding together of GE Capital businesses that we expect to retain, principally its vertical
financing businesses—GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS), Energy Financial Services (EFS) and Industrial Finance (which
includes Healthcare Equipment Finance, Working Capital Solutions and Industrial Financing Solutions)—that relate to the
Company’s core industrial domain and other operations, including our run-off insurance activities, and allocated corporate costs.
We integrate acquisitions as quickly as possible. Revenues and earnings from the date we complete the acquisition through the end of
the fourth quarter following the acquisition are considered the acquisition effect of such businesses.
Discussion of GE Capital’s total assets includes deferred income tax liabilities, which are presented within assets for purposes of our
consolidated statement of financial position presentations for this filing.
Amounts reported in billions in graphs within this report are computed based on the amounts in millions. As a result, the sum of the
components reported in billions may not equal the total amount reported in billions due to rounding. Certain columns and rows within
the tables may not add due to the use of rounded numbers. Percentages presented are calculated from the underlying numbers in
millions.
Discussions throughout this MD&A are based on continuing operations unless otherwise noted.
The MD&A should be read in conjunction with the Financial Statements and Notes to the consolidated financial statements.
x Industrial operating profit margin (Non-GAAP) – Industrial segment profit plus corporate items and eliminations (excluding
gains, restructuring, and pre-tax non-operating pension costs) divided by industrial segment revenues plus corporate items and
eliminations (excluding gains and GE-GE Capital eliminations).
x Industrial return on total capital (Industrial ROTC) (Non-GAAP) – earnings from continuing operations attributable to GE
common shareowners less GE Capital earnings from continuing operations plus GE after-tax interest, divided by average Industrial
shareholders’ equity, less average GE Capital’s shareholders’ equity, plus average debt and other, net.
x Industrial segment gross margin – industrial segment sales less industrial segment cost of sales.
x Industrial shareholders’ equity and GE Capital shareholders’ equity – for purposes of the Industrial ROTC calculation
excludes the effects of discontinued operations and is calculated on an annual basis using a five-point average.
x Net earnings – unless otherwise indicated, we refer to the caption “net earnings attributable to GE common shareowners” as net
earnings.
x Net earnings per share (EPS) – unless otherwise indicated, when we refer to net earnings per share, it is the diluted per-share
amount of “net earnings attributable to GE common shareowners”.
x Non-operating pension cost (Non-GAAP) – comprises the expected return on plan assets, interest cost on benefit obligations
and net actuarial gain (loss) amortization for our principal pension plans.
x Operating earnings (Non-GAAP) – GE earnings from continuing operations attributable to common shareowners excluding the
impact of non-operating pension costs.
x Operating earnings per share (Non-GAAP) – unless otherwise indicated, when we refer to operating earnings per share, it is the
diluted per-share amount of “operating earnings”.
x Operating pension cost (Non-GAAP) – comprises the service cost of benefits earned, prior service cost amortization and
curtailment gain (loss) for our principal pension plans.
x Organic revenues (Non-GAAP) – revenues excluding the effects of acquisitions, dispositions and translational foreign currency
exchange.
x Product services – for purposes of the financial statement display of sales and costs of sales in our Statement of Earnings,
“goods” is required by SEC regulations to include all sales of tangible products, and “services” must include all other sales,
including other services activities. In our MD&A section of this report, we refer to sales under product services agreements and
sales of both goods (such as spare parts and equipment upgrades) and related services (such as monitoring, maintenance and
repairs) as sales of “product services,” which is an important part of our operations. We refer to “product services” simply as
“services” within the MD&A.
x Product services agreements – contractual commitments, with multiple-year terms, to provide specified services for products in
our Power, Renewable Energy, Oil & Gas, Aviation and Transportation installed base – for example, monitoring, maintenance,
service and spare parts for a gas turbine/generator set installed in a customer’s power plant.
x Revenues – unless otherwise indicated, we refer to captions such as “revenues and other income” simply as revenues.
x Segment profit – refers to the operating profit of the industrial segments and the net earnings of the Financial Services segment.
See the Segment Operations section within the MD&A for a description of the basis for segment profits.
x Shared Services – sharing of business processes in order to standardize and consolidate services to provide value to the
businesses in the form of simplified processes, reduced overall costs and increased service performance.
In the accompanying analysis of financial information, we sometimes use information derived from consolidated financial data but not
presented in our financial statements prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). Certain of
these data are considered “non-GAAP financial measures” under the SEC rules. Specifically, we have referred, in various sections of
this report, to:
x Industrial segment organic revenues and industrial segment organic revenues excluding Oil & Gas
x Industrial segment organic operating profit
x Oil & Gas organic revenue and operating profit growth
x Operating and non-operating pension cost
x Adjusted corporate costs (operating)
x GE pre-tax earnings from continuing operations, excluding GE Capital earnings (loss) from continuing operations and the
corresponding effective tax rates, and the reconciliation of the U.S. federal statutory income tax rate to GE effective tax rate,
excluding GE Capital earnings
x Industrial operating earnings and GE Capital earnings (loss) from continuing operations and EPS
x Industrial operating + Verticals earnings and EPS
x Industrial operating profit and operating profit margin (excluding certain items)
x Industrial operating profit + Verticals
x Industrial segment gross margin (excluding Alstom)
x Industrial segment operating profit and operating margin (excluding Alstom)
x Average GE shareowners’ equity, excluding effects of discontinued operations
x Average GE Capital shareowners’ equity, excluding effects of discontinued operations
x Industrial return on total capital (Industrial ROTC)
x Industrial cash flows from operating activities (Industrial CFOA) and Industrial CFOA excluding taxes related to business sales and
principal pension plan funding
x GE cash flows from operating activities (GE CFOA) excluding taxes related to business sales and principal pension plan funding
x Free cash flow (FCF) and FCF plus dispositions
x Ratio of adjusted debt to equity at GE Capital, net of liquidity
x Capital ending net investment (ENI), excluding liquidity
x 2017 operating framework including 2017 Industrial operating + Verticals EPS target
The reasons we use these non-GAAP financial measures and the reconciliations to their most directly comparable GAAP financial
measures are included in the Supplemental Information section within the MD&A. Non-GAAP financial measures referred to in this
report are either labeled as “non-GAAP” or designated as such with an asterisk (*).
GE Capital Dividend
Industrial CFOA*
(a) Including the results of Alstom for November and December of both (a) Industrial CFOA was $12.2 billion excluding deal taxes of $(0.2) billion
2015 and 2016 related to the sale of our Signaling business
(b) Industrial CFOA was $11.6 billion excluding deal taxes of $(1.4) billion
related to the sale of our Appliances business and $(0.3) billion of pension
funding
(c) Included $(0.3) billion related to Alstom in both 2015 and 2016
Equipment
Services
Equipment
Services
(a) Included $2.5 billion related to Alstom (a) Included $29.2 billion related to Alstom
(b) Included $17.4 billion related to Alstom (b) Included $31.2 billion related to Alstom
(a) 12.0%, excluding (7.9)% related to Alstom* (a) Excluded gains, non-operating pension costs, restructuring and other,
(b) 12.1%, excluding 5.9% related to Alstom* noncontrolling interests, GE Capital preferred stock dividends, as well as
the results of Alstom
*Non-GAAP Financial Measure
SHAREHOLDER INFORMATION
RETURNED $30.5 BILLION TO ANNUAL MEETING
SHAREOWNERS IN 2016
The annual changes for the five-year period shown in the graph on this page are based on the assumption that $100 had been invested
in General Electric common stock, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Stock Index (S&P 500) and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) on
December 31, 2011, and that all quarterly dividends were reinvested. The cumulative dollar returns shown on the graph represent the
value that such investments would have had on December 31 for each year indicated.
With respect to “Market Information,” in the United States, General Electric common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange
(its principal market). General Electric common stock is also listed on the London Stock Exchange, Euronext Paris, the SIX Swiss
Exchange and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The chart above shows trading prices, as reported on the New York Stock Exchange,
Inc., Composite Transactions Tape.
As of January 31, 2017, there were approximately 440,000 shareowner accounts of record.
On February 10, 2017, our Board of Directors approved a quarterly dividend of $0.24 per share of common stock, which is payable April
25, 2017, to shareowners of record at close of business on February 27, 2017.
CONSOLIDATED RESULTS
SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENTS IN 2016
Our consolidated results for 2016 were significantly affected by recent portfolio changes, including the 2015 acquisition of Alstom,
the disposal of financial services businesses under the GE Capital Exit Plan initiated in 2015 and the 2016 sale of our Appliances
business.
ALSTOM
In 2016, Alstom contributed revenues of $13.0 billion and an operating loss of $0.3 billion, of which $0.8 billion of profit is included in
the segment results and $1.0 billion of charges is included in Corporate, primarily related to purchase accounting and acquisition
related charges. Including the effects of tax benefits of $0.8 billion, net earnings were $0.4 billion for the year ended December 31,
2016. In addition, Alstom used cash flows from operating activities of $0.3 billion for the year ended December 31, 2016.
In June 2016, we received approval of our request to the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) for rescission of GE Capital’s
designation as a nonbank Systemically Important Financial Institution (SIFI).
x Acquisition of the remaining 74% of software developer Meridium Inc. in September 2016, for $0.4 billion to enhance and
accelerate our asset performance-management capabilities across our industrial businesses.
x The acquisitions of a 76.2% interest in Arcam AB for $0.5 billion and a 75% interest in Concept Laser GmbH for $0.6
billion, two European 3-D printing companies that print metal parts for aircraft and other industrial components, to expand
our additive manufacturing capabilities.
PLANNED TRANSACTIONS
We also announced a number of strategic transactions during 2016 that we expect to complete in 2017, including the following.
x In October 2016, we announced an agreement with Baker Hughes Incorporated (Baker Hughes) to combine our Oil & Gas
business and Baker Hughes to create a new entity in which GE will hold a 62.5% interest and existing Baker Hughes
shareholders will have a 37.5% interest. Baker Hughes shareholders will also receive a cash dividend funded by a $7.4
billion cash contribution by GE. The transaction is subject to the approval of Baker Hughes shareholders, regulatory
approvals and other customary closing conditions.
x In October 2016, we announced a plan to acquire LM Wind Power, one of the world’s largest wind turbine blade
manufacturers for $1.7 billion, subject to customary closing conditions.
x In October 2016, we also announced our plan to sell our Water & Process Technologies business and in December 2016,
we announced our plan to sell our Industrial Solutions business.
CONSOLIDATED
CONSOLIDATED RESULTS
RESULTS
(Dollars in billions)
(Dollars in billions)
2016
2016 GEOGRAPHIC
GEOGRAPHIC REVENUES
REVENUES 2016
2016 SEGMENT
SEGMENT REVENUES
REVENUES
REVENUES
REVENUES INDUSTRIAL
INDUSTRIAL REVENUES
REVENUES FINANCIAL
FINANCIAL SERVICES
SERVICES REVENUES
REVENUES
(a) Includes $2.0 billion related to Alstom (a) Includes $2.0 billion related to Alstom
(a) Includes $2.0 billion related to Alstom (a) Includes $2.0 billion related to Alstom
(b) Includes $13.0 billion related to Alstom (b) Includes $13.0 billion related to Alstom
(b) Includes $13.0 billion related to Alstom (b) Includes $13.0 billion related to Alstom
CONTINUING
CONTINUING EARNINGS
EARNINGS
CONTINUING
CONTINUING EARNINGS(a)
EARNINGS(a) PER
PER SHARE(a)
SHARE(a)
CONSOLIDATED RESULTS
(Dollars in billions)
Consolidated revenues increased $6.3 billion, or 5%, primarily Consolidated continuing earnings increased $7.5 billion,
driven by increased Industrial revenues of $6.6 billion and primarily driven by decreased Financial Services losses of $6.7
increased Financial Services revenues of $0.1 billion, partially billion, increased Industrial continuing earnings of $0.5 billion
offset by an increase in eliminations between Industrial and and a net decrease of $0.2 billion resulting from income taxes,
Financial Services of $0.4 billion. The overall foreign currency and interest and other financial charges. The overall foreign
impact on consolidated revenues was a decrease of $1.3 currency impact on consolidated earnings was a decrease of
billion. $0.3 billion.
x Industrial revenues increased $6.6 billion, or 6% due to x Industrial earnings increased $0.5 billion due to
increased industrial segment revenues of $4.4 billion, or increased earnings at Corporate of $0.8 billion, or 17%, as
4%, as increases at Power, Renewable Energy, Aviation current year gains were $1.9 billion higher and pension
and Healthcare were partially offset by decreases at Oil & costs were $0.7 billion lower than 2015. These increases
Gas, Transportation and Energy Connections & Lighting. to earnings were partially offset by $1.8 billion of higher
This increase in industrial segment revenues was primarily restructuring and other charges.
driven by the net effects of acquisitions of $11.2 billion, Industrial earnings decreased due to decreased industrial
offset by the net effects of dispositions of $5.6 billion and segment earnings of $0.4 billion, or 2%, as decreases at
the effects of a stronger U.S. dollar of $0.8 billion. Oil & Gas, Energy Connections & Lighting, and
Excluding the effects of acquisitions, dispositions and Transportation were partially offset by increases at
translational currency exchange, industrial segment organic Aviation, Power, Healthcare and Renewable Energy. This
revenues* decreased $0.5 billion. decrease in industrial segment earnings, was primarily
Industrial revenues increased an additional $2.2 billion at driven by decreases in organic operating profit* of $0.8
Corporate as current year gains were $1.9 billion higher billion and the net effect of dispositions of $0.5 billion,
than 2015 gains. partially offset by the net effect of acquisitions of $0.9
x Financial Services revenues increased $0.1 billion, or billion.
1%, primarily due to lower impairments, higher gains and x Financial Services losses decreased $6.7 billion, or
the effects of acquisitions, partially offset by organic 84%, primarily due to the absence of the 2015 charges
revenue declines, the effects of dispositions and the effects associated with the GE Capital Exit Plan.
of translational currency exchange. x In addition to the effects on net earnings described above,
earnings per share amounts were also positively impacted
by the reduction in number of outstanding common shares
compared to 2015. The average number of shares
outstanding used to calculate 2016 earnings per share
amounts was 9% lower than 2015, primarily due to the
2015 Synchrony Financial share exchange and ongoing
share buyback activities funded in large part by dividends
from GE Capital.
CONSOLIDATED RESULTS
(Dollars in billions)
Consolidated revenues increased $0.2 billion, primarily driven Consolidated continuing earnings decreased $7.9 billion, or
by increased Industrial revenues of $0.4 billion and a decrease 83%, primarily driven by decreased Financial Services net
in eliminations between Industrial and Financial Services of earnings of $9.2 billion, partially offset by an increase in
$0.4 billion, partially offset by decreased Financial Services Industrial continuing earnings of $1.3 billion. The overall foreign
revenues of $0.5 billion. The overall foreign currency impact on currency impact on consolidated earnings was a decrease of
consolidated revenues was a decrease of $4.9 billion. $0.6 billion.
x Industrial revenues increased $0.4 billion due an
increase at Corporate of $1.3 billion, or 75%, as 2015 x Industrial earnings increased 1.3 billion, or 11%, due to
gains were $1.4 billion higher than 2014 year gains. increased industrial segment earnings of $0.2 billion, or
This was offset by decreases in industrial segment 1%, as increases at Aviation, Energy Connections &
revenues of $0.9 billion, or 1%, as decreases at Oil & Gas, Lighting, Transportation and Power were partially offset by
Healthcare and Renewable Energy were partially offset by decreases at Oil & Gas, Renewable Energy and
increases at Power, Aviation, Energy Connections & Healthcare. This increase in industrial segment earnings
Lighting and Transportation. The $0.9 billion decrease in was primarily driven by increases in organic operating
industrial segment revenues was primarily driven by the profit* of $1.2 billion, partially offset by the translational
translational effects of a stronger U.S. dollar of $4.8 billion currency exchange effects of a stronger U.S. dollar of $0.7
and the net effects of dispositions of $1.1 billion, partially billion, net acquisitions of $0.1 billion and net dispositions
offset by the net effects of acquisitions of $2.2 billion. of $0.2 billion.
Excluding the effects of acquisitions, dispositions and Industrial earnings at Corporate increased an additional
currency exchange, industrial segment organic revenues* $1.1 billion, or 18%, as 2015 gains were $1.4 billion higher
increased by $2.8 billion, or 3%. than 2014 gains, partially offset by $0.5 billion of higher
x Financial Services revenues decreased $0.5 billion, or Principal retirement plan costs in 2015.
5%, primarily due to organic revenue declines, primarily x Financial Services net earnings decreased $9.2 billion,
resulting from lower ending net investment (ENI), lower primarily due to 2015 charges associated with the GE
gains and higher impairments, partially offset by the effects Capital Exit Plan.
of acquisitions and dispositions.
See Segment Results and Corporate Items & Eliminations sections within the MD&A for more information.
Also, see the Other Consolidated Information section within the MD&A for a discussion of postretirement benefit plans costs, income
taxes and geographic data.
GE CAPITAL
GE Capital results include continuing operations, which are reported in the Capital segment (see Segment discussion), and
discontinued operations (see Discontinued Operations section and Note 2).
On April 10, 2015, the Company announced a plan (the GE Capital Exit Plan) to create a simple, more valuable company by reducing
the size of its financial services businesses through the sale of most of the assets of GE Capital over the following 24 months and
aligning a smaller GE Capital with GE’s industrial businesses.
Under the GE Capital Exit Plan, the Company is retaining certain GE Capital businesses, principally its vertical financing businesses—
GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS), Energy Financial Services (EFS) and Industrial Finance (which includes Healthcare Equipment
Finance, Working Capital Solutions and Industrial Financing Solutions)—that relate to the Company’s core industrial domain and other
operations, including our run-off insurance activities, and allocated corporate costs (together referred to as GE Capital Verticals or
Verticals).
As a result of the GE Capital Exit Plan dispositions, GE Capital has paid $24.4 billion in dividends to GE in 2015 and 2016 ($4.3 billion
and $20.1 billion, respectively). We expect GE Capital to release additional dividends of up to approximately $10 billion through the
remainder of the plan. In January 2017, GE received an additional $2.0 billion of common dividends from GE Capital. As of December
31, 2016, we are ahead of our plan, having signed agreements with buyers for $197 billion of ending net investment (ENI), excluding
liquidity (as originally reported at December 31, 2014), of which $190 billion has closed. As of December 31, 2016, we have
substantially completed the dispositions related to the GE Capital Exit Plan. In addition, as part of our initiative to reduce the size of our
financial services businesses, we completed the split-off of our remaining interest in GE Capital’s North American Retail Finance
business, Synchrony Financial, to holders of GE common stock, which resulted in a $20.4 billion buyback of GE common stock (671.4
million shares) in 2015. In connection with the GE Capital Exit Plan, we completed a legal reorganization of GE Capital that included a
merger of GE Capital into GE, a guarantee by GE of GE Capital debt, and an exchange of $36 billion of GE Capital debt for new notes
guaranteed by GE. The result of all these actions reduced GE Capital’s total assets by 63% from $500 billion at December 31, 2014 to
$183 billion at December 31, 2016. From inception of plan through December 31, 2016, we incurred charges of $22.0 billion. Due to
anticipated tax benefits and gains, we do not expect total after-tax charges through the completion of the GE Capital Exit Plan to
exceed our initial $23 billion estimate.
On March 31, 2016, GE filed its request to the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) for rescission of GE Capital’s designation
as a nonbank Systemically Important Financial Institution (SIFI). On June 28, 2016, the FSOC rescinded GE Capital’s designation as a
nonbank SIFI.
SALES AGREEMENTS
During 2016, GE signed agreements to sell approximately $40 billion of ENI, excluding liquidity (as originally reported at December 31,
2014), of which approximately $19 billion, $21 billion and less than $1 billion related to our Commercial Lending and Leasing (CLL),
Consumer and Real Estate businesses, respectively.
Sales representing approximately $86 billion of ENI, excluding liquidity (as originally reported at December 31, 2014) closed during
2016, including approximately $70 billion, $16 billion and less than $1 billion related to our CLL, Consumer and Real Estate businesses,
respectively.
During 2016, GE recorded less than $0.1 billion of after-tax charges related to the GE Capital Exit Plan of which $0.7 billion of net
benefits were recorded in continuing operations and $0.7 billion of after-tax charges were recorded in discontinued operations. A
description of these after-tax charges for 2016 is provided below.
x $1.3 billion of net loss primarily related to the completed and planned dispositions of Consumer and most of the CLL
businesses, which was recorded in discontinued operations under the caption “Earnings (loss) from discontinued operations,
net of taxes” in the Statement of Earnings.
x $0.3 billion of charges associated with the preferred equity exchange that was completed in January 2016, which was
recorded in continuing operations and reported in GE Capital’s corporate component under the caption “Preferred stock
dividends” in the Statement of Earnings.
x These charges were offset by tax benefits of $1.4 billion primarily related to increased tax efficiency of planned cash
repatriations through increased foreign tax credit utilization of $0.8 billion and an IRS tax settlement of $0.6 billion. Of these
benefits $1.1 billion was recorded in continuing operations and reported in GE Capital’s corporate component under the
caption “Benefit (provision) for income taxes” in the Statement of Earnings and $0.2 billion was recorded in discontinued
operations under the caption “Earnings (loss) from discontinued operations, net of taxes” in the Statement of Earnings.
For additional information about the GE Capital Exit Plan 2015 sales agreements and after-tax charges, refer to our Form 8-K filed on
June 3, 2016 related to the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015.
In addition to the above charges, during the year ended December 31, 2016, we have incurred other costs related to our ongoing
liability management actions, including $0.6 billion of pre-tax losses related to the repurchase of $12.5 billion of long-term unsecured
debt and subordinated debentures which were recorded in continuing operations.
SEGMENT OPERATIONS
SEGMENT CHANGES
x Beginning in the third quarter of 2016, the former Energy Connections and Appliances & Lighting segments are presented as one
reporting segment called Energy Connections & Lighting. This segment includes historical results of the Appliances business prior
to its sale in June 2016.
Segment profit is determined based on internal performance measures used by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to assess the
performance of each business in a given period. In connection with that assessment, the CEO may exclude matters such as charges
for restructuring; rationalization and other similar expenses; acquisition costs and other related charges; technology and product
development costs; certain gains and losses from acquisitions or dispositions; and litigation settlements or other charges, for which
responsibility preceded the current management team. For additional information about costs excluded from segment profit, see
Corporate Items and Eliminations section within this MD&A.
Segment profit excludes results reported as discontinued operations and material accounting changes. Segment profit also excludes
the portion of earnings or loss attributable to noncontrolling interests of consolidated subsidiaries, and as such only includes the portion
of earnings or loss attributable to our share of the consolidated earnings or loss of consolidated subsidiaries.
Segment profit excludes or includes interest and other financial charges and income taxes according to how a particular segment’s
management is measured:
x Interest and other financial charges, income taxes and GE preferred stock dividends are excluded in determining segment profit
(which we sometimes refer to as “operating profit”) for the industrial segments.
x Interest and other financial charges, income taxes and GE Capital preferred stock dividends are included in determining segment
profit (which we sometimes refer to as “net earnings”) for the Capital segment.
Certain corporate costs, such as shared services, employee benefits and information technology are allocated to our segments based
on usage. A portion of the remaining corporate costs is allocated based on each segment’s relative net cost of operations.
With respect to the segment revenue and profit walks, the overall effect of foreign exchange is included within multiple captions as
follows:
At year-end 2015, our preliminary allocation of purchase price resulted in recognition of approximately $13.5 billion of goodwill, $5.2
billion of intangible assets, and $1.1 billion of unfavorable customer contract liabilities. The preliminary fair value of the associated
noncontrolling interest was approximately $3.6 billion. As of the end of 2016, the amount of goodwill, intangible assets and unfavorable
customer contract liabilities recognized was adjusted to approximately $17.3 billion, $4.4 billion, and $2.7 billion, respectively. The
adjustments reflected revisions in estimates primarily related to cash flows and other valuation assumptions for customer contracts,
increases to legal reserves, and other fair value adjustments related to acquired assets and liabilities. Deferred taxes, unrecognized tax
benefits and other tax uncertainties were also adjusted under applicable accounting rules. We finalized our purchase accounting
analysis in the fourth quarter of 2016. See Note 8 to the consolidated financial statements for further information.
For the year ended December 31, 2016, Alstom contributed revenues of $13.0 billion and an operating loss of $0.3 billion, of which $0.8
billion of profit is included in the segment results and $1.0 billion of charges is included in Corporate, primarily related to purchase
accounting and acquisition related charges. Including the effects of tax benefits of $0.8 billion, net earnings were $0.4 billion for the year
ended December 31, 2016. In addition, Alstom used cash flows from operating activities of $0.3 billion for the year ended December 31,
2016. Alstom related revenues and operating profit are presented separately in the segment revenues and profit walks that follow.
SALE OF APPLIANCES
On January 15, 2016, we announced the signing of an agreement to sell our Appliances business to Haier. On June 6, 2016, we
completed the sale for proceeds of $5.6 billion (including $0.8 billion from the sale of receivables originated in our Appliances business
and sold from GE Capital to Haier) and recognized an after-tax gain of $1.8 billion in 2016.
SEGMENT RESULTS
(Dollars in billions)
INDUSTRIAL SEGMENT EQUIPMENT
& SERVICES REVENUES INDUSTRIAL SEGMENT PROFIT
Equipment(a)
Services(b)
(a) In 2015, $59.8 billion, excluding $1.1 billion related to Alstom.* In (a) $18.1 billion, excluding $(0.2) billion related to Alstom*
2016, $52.7 billion, excluding $8.1 billion related to Alstom* (b) $16.8 billion, excluding $0.8 billion related to Alstom*
(b) In 2015, $47.1 billion, excluding $0.8 billion related to Alstom.* In
2016, $47.5 billion, excluding $4.9 billion related to Alstom*
POWER
BUSINESS OVERVIEW
x Gas Power Systems – offers a wide spectrum of heavy-duty and aeroderivative gas turbines for utilities, independent power
producers and numerous industrial applications, ranging from small, mobile power to utility scale power plants.
x Steam Power Systems – offers steam power technology for coal and nuclear applications including boilers, generators, steam
turbines, and Air Quality Control Systems (AQCS) to help efficiently produce power and provide performance over the life of a
power plant.
x Power Services – delivers maintenance, service and upgrade solutions across total plant assets and over their operational
lifecycle, leveraging the Industrial Internet to improve the performance of such solutions.
x Distributed Power – provides technology-based products and services to generate reliable and efficient power at or near the point
of use. The product portfolio features highly efficient, fuel flexible industrial gas engines, including Jenbacher and Waukesha
engines, that generate power for numerous industries globally.
x Water & Process Technologies – provides comprehensive chemical and equipment solutions and services to help manage and
optimize water resources across numerous industries and municipalities, including water treatment, wastewater treatment and
process system solutions.
x GE Hitachi Nuclear – offers advanced reactor technologies solutions, including reactors, fuels and support services for boiling
water reactors, and is offered through joint ventures with Hitachi and Toshiba, for safety, reliability and performance for nuclear
fleets.
OPERATIONAL OVERVIEW
(Dollars in billions)
Equipment
Services
Equipment
Services
(a) Includes Water & Process Technologies, Distributed Power and GE (a) Includes $15.5 billion related to Alstom
Hitachi Nuclear (b) Includes $18.3 billion related to Alstom
Services Equipment
SIGNIFICANT TRENDS & DEVELOPMENTS
The integration of Alstom’s Thermal business has yielded significant efficiencies in supply chain, service infrastructure, new
product development and SG&A costs.
We announced our plan to sell our Water & Process Technologies business that will further position the business for long-term
growth.
We expanded our capabilities surrounding the manufacturing and supply of power plant equipment by acquiring Metem
Corporation and a unit of South Korea's Doosan Engineering and Construction Company, which provides Heat Steam Recovery
Generators.
Digital offerings have been developed to further complement our equipment and services business and drive value and better
outcomes for our customers.
The business continues to invest in new product development, such as our new HA-Turbine, reciprocating engines and advanced
upgrades, to expand our equipment and services offerings.
Excess capacity in developed markets, continued pressure in oil and gas applications and macroeconomic and geopolitical
environments result in uncertainty for the industry and business.
38 GE 2016 FORM 10-K
FINANCIAL OVERVIEW
(Dollars in billions)
Equipment
Services
(a) $20.6 billion, excluding $0.9 billion (a) $4.6 billion, excluding $(0.1) billion related (a) 22.3%, excluding (8.7)% related to Alstom*
related to Alstom* to Alstom* (b) 21.5%, excluding 9.0% related to Alstom*
(b) $20.6 billion, excluding $6.3 billion (b) $4.4 billion, excluding $0.6 billion related to
related to Alstom* Alstom*
RENEWABLE ENERGY
BUSINESS OVERVIEW
x Onshore Wind – provides technology and services for the onshore wind power industry by providing wind turbine platforms and
hardware and software to optimize wind resources. Wind services help customers improve availability and value of their assets
over the lifetime of the fleet. Digital Wind Farm is a site level solution, creating a dynamic, connected and adaptable ecosystem that
improves our customers’ fleet operations.
x Offshore Wind – offers its high-yield offshore wind turbine, Haliade 150-6MW, which is compatible with bottom fixed and floating
foundations. It uses the innovative pure torque design and the Advanced High Density direct-drive Permanent Magnet Generator.
Wind services support customers over the lifetime of their fleet.
x Hydro – provides a full range of solutions, products and services to serve the hydropower industry from initial design to final
commissioning, from Low Head / Medium / High Head hydropower plants to pumped storage hydropower plants, small hydropower
plants, concentrated solar power plants, geothermal power plants and biomass power plants.
OPERATIONAL OVERVIEW
(Dollars in billions)
Equipment
Services
Equipment
Services
Services Equipment
FINANCIAL OVERVIEW
(Dollars in billions)
Equipment
Services
(a) $6.2 billion, excluding $0.1 billion (a) $0.5 billion, excluding $(0.1) billion related (a) 8.1%, excluding (79.3)% related to Alstom*
related to Alstom* to Alstom* (b) 6.9%, excluding 2.6% related to Alstom*
(b) $7.9 billion, excluding $1.2 billion (b) $0.5 billion, excluding an insignificant
related to Alstom* amount related to Alstom*
Volume 2.0 0.1 x The increase in revenues was due to higher volume, mainly
Price (0.1) (0.1) driven by higher core equipment sales at Onshore Wind as a
result of shipping 420 more onshore wind turbines than in the
Foreign Exchange (0.1) -
prior year, as well as higher sales at Hydro, driven by the
(Inflation)/Deflation N/A 0.2 effects of the Alstom acquisition. The increase was partially
Mix N/A (0.1) offset by lower other income, including negative foreign
exchange transactional hedge impacts, and lower prices.
Productivity N/A -
x The increase in profit was due to material deflation and higher
Other (0.1) (0.1) volume, driven primarily by Onshore Wind, partially offset by
Alstom 1.1 0.1 lower other income, including negative foreign exchange
transactional hedge impacts, lower prices and an unfavorable
2016 $ 9.0 $ 0.6
business mix, driven by low margin projects with higher
services margins.
OPERATIONAL OVERVIEW
(Dollars in billions)
Equipment
Services
Equipment
Services
(a) Previously referred to as Measurement & Controls (M&C) (a) Includes $0.1 billion related to Alstom
EQUIPMENT/SERVICES REVENUES
Services Equipment
FINANCIAL OVERVIEW
(Dollars in billions)
Equipment
Services
(a) $12.8 billion, excluding $0.1 billion (a) $1.4 billion, excluding an insignificant (a) 10.8%, excluding 6.5% related to Alstom*
related to Alstom* amount related to Alstom*
Volume (3.0) (0.4) x The decrease in revenues was mainly due to lower core
volume across all sub-segments, primarily Surface and SS&D,
Price (0.3) (0.3)
due to lower oil prices, as well as the effects of a stronger U.S.
Foreign Exchange (0.3) - dollar, and lower other income, including negative foreign
(Inflation)/Deflation N/A 0.2 exchange transactional hedge impacts, partially offset by the
effects of the Alstom acquisition.
Mix N/A -
x The decrease in profit was primarily market driven, mainly due
Productivity N/A (0.5) to lower core volume across all sub-segments due to lower oil
Other (0.1) - prices, which, despite the effects of restructuring actions,
drove lower cost productivity. Profit was also adversely
Alstom 0.1 -
impacted by unfavorable foreign exchange transactional
2016 $ 12.9 $ 1.4 hedge impacts in the year. These decreases were partially
offset by material deflation. Operating profit excluding the
effects of foreign exchange of $0.1 billion was $1.5 billion
(down 37% compared with prior year).*
AVIATION
BUSINESS OVERVIEW
x Commercial Engines – manufactures jet engines and turboprops for commercial airframes. Our commercial engines power
aircraft in all categories; regional, narrowbody and widebody. We also manufacture engines and components for business and
general aviation segments.
x Commercial Services – provides maintenance, component repair and overhaul services (MRO), including sales of replacement
parts.
x Military – manufactures jet engines for military airframes. Our military engines power a wide variety of military aircraft including
fighters, bombers, tankers, helicopters and surveillance aircraft, as well as marine applications. We provide maintenance,
component repair and overhaul services, including sales of replacement parts.
x Systems – provides components, systems and services for commercial and military segments. This includes avionics systems,
aviation electric power systems, flight efficiency and intelligent operation services, aircraft structures and Avio Aero.
x Additive – provides machines for metal additive manufacturing for industry and comprises our existing technologies as well as two
new acquisitions, enabling the design and manufacture of complex parts and leverage of technology for improved cost and
performance.
x We also produce and market engines through CFM International, a company jointly owned by GE and Snecma, a subsidiary of
SAFRAN of France, and Engine Alliance, LLC, a company jointly owned by GE and the Pratt & Whitney division of United
Technologies Corporation. New engines are also being designed and marketed in a joint venture with Honda Aero, Inc., a division
of Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
Our product, services and activities are subject to a number of regulators such as by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA),
European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and other regulatory bodies.
OPERATIONAL OVERVIEW
(Dollars in billions)
Equipment
Services
Equipment
Services
FINANCIAL OVERVIEW
(Dollars in billions)
Equipment
Services
Volume 1.5 0.3 x The increase in revenues was primarily due to higher services
Price 0.2 0.2 volume and LEAP engine shipments, partially offset by lower
equipment volume driven by lower Military shipments.
Foreign Exchange - -
Revenues also increased as a result of higher engines and
(Inflation)/Deflation N/A (0.2) services pricing. Prices increased in response to higher
Mix N/A (0.1) material and conversion costs.
Productivity N/A 0.5 x The increase in profit was mainly due to higher cost
productivity, driven by higher services volume and prices.
Other - (0.1) These increases were partially offset by the effects of inflation,
2016 $ 26.3 $ 6.1 an unfavorable business mix driven by LEAP shipments, and
lower other income.
HEALTHCARE
BUSINESS OVERVIEW
x Healthcare Systems – provides a wide range of technologies and services that include diagnostic imaging and clinical systems.
Diagnostic imaging systems such as X-ray, digital mammography, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance (MR), surgical
and interventional imaging and molecular imaging technologies allow clinicians to see inside the human body more clearly. Clinical
systems such as ultrasound, electrocardiography (ECG), bone densitometry, patient monitoring, incubators and infant warmers,
respiratory care, and anesthesia management that enable clinicians to provide better care for patients every day – from wellness
screening to advanced diagnostics to life-saving treatment. Healthcare systems also offers product services that include remote
diagnostic and repair services for medical equipment manufactured by GE and by others.
x Life Sciences – delivers products, services and manufacturing solutions for drug discovery, the biopharmaceutical industry and
cellular technologies, so scientists and specialists discover new ways to predict, diagnose and treat disease. It also researches,
manufactures and markets innovative imaging agents used during medical scanning procedures to highlight organs, tissue and
functions inside the human body, to aid physicians in the early detection, diagnosis and management of disease through advanced
in-vivo diagnostics.
x Healthcare Digital – provides medical technologies, software, analytics, cloud solutions, implementation and services to drive
increased access, enhanced quality and more affordable healthcare around the world. By combining digital and industrial, software
and hardware, Healthcare Digital delivers integrated digital solutions that improve outcomes.
Our products are subject to regulation by numerous government agencies, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (U.S.
FDA), as well as various laws and regulations that apply to claims submitted under Medicare, Medicaid or other government funded
healthcare programs.
OPERATIONAL OVERVIEW
(Dollars in billions)
Equipment
Services
Equipment
Services
EQUIPMENT/SERVICES REVENUES
Services Equipment
FINANCIAL OVERVIEW
(Dollars in billions)
Equipment
Services
Volume 1.0 0.2 x The increase in revenues was primarily due to higher volume
Price (0.3) (0.3) in Life Sciences and Healthcare Systems, as well as higher
other income, partially offset by lower prices at Healthcare
Foreign Exchange (0.1) -
Systems and the effects of a stronger U.S. dollar.
(Inflation)/Deflation N/A -
x The increase in profit was primarily driven by higher cost
Mix N/A - productivity, including the effects of previous restructuring
Productivity N/A 0.4 actions and strong volume growth, partially offset by lower
prices at Healthcare Systems.
Other 0.1 -
2016 $ 18.3 $ 3.2
TRANSPORTATION
BUSINESS OVERVIEW
x Locomotives – we provide freight and passenger locomotives as well as rail services to help solve rail challenges. We
manufacture high-horsepower, diesel-electric locomotives including the Evolution Series TM, which meets or exceeds the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Tier 4 requirements for freight and passenger applications.
x Services – we develop partnerships that support advisory services, parts, integrated software solutions and data analytics. Our
comprehensive offerings include tailored service programs, high-quality parts for GE and other locomotive platforms, overhaul,
repair and upgrade services, and wreck repair. Our portfolio provides the people, partnerships and leading software to optimize
operations and asset utilization.
x Digital Solutions – we offer a suite of software-enabled solutions to help our customers lower operational costs, increase
productivity and improve service quality and reliability.
x Mining – we provide mining equipment and services. The portfolio includes drive systems for off-highway vehicles, mining
equipment, mining power and productivity.
x Marine, Stationary & Drilling – we offer marine diesel engines and stationary power diesel engines and motors for land and
offshore drilling rigs.
OPERATIONAL OVERVIEW
(Dollars in billions)
Equipment
Services
Equipment
Services
Services Equipment
FINANCIAL OVERVIEW
(Dollars in billions)
Equipment
Services
Volume (1.2) (0.2) x The decrease in revenues was primarily driven by lower
Price - - equipment volume, driven by 236 fewer locomotive shipments
than in the prior year, as well as lower services volume due to
Foreign Exchange - -
higher parked locomotives. The decrease in revenues was
(Inflation)/Deflation N/A 0.1 also impacted by the Signaling business disposition in
Mix N/A - November 2015.
Productivity N/A - x The decrease in profit was primarily driven by lower volume,
partially offset by material deflation and higher cost
Other - - productivity, as well as the effects of restructuring actions.
2016 $ 4.7 $ 1.1
Energy Connections
x Industrial Solutions – creates advanced technologies that safely, reliably and efficiently distribute and control electricity to protect
people, property and equipment. We provide high performance software and control solutions and offer products such as circuit
breakers, relays, arresters, switchgear, panel boards and repair for the commercial, data center, healthcare, mining, renewable
energy, oil & gas, water and telecommunication markets.
x Grid Solutions – a GE and Alstom joint venture, equips 90% of power utilities worldwide to bring power from the point of
generation to end consumers. With over 200 years combined experience in providing advanced energy solutions, our products and
services enable more resilient, efficient and reliable power systems. Our products and services, such as high voltage equipment,
power electronics, automation and protection equipment, software solutions, in addition to our robust projects and services
capabilities modernize the grid. We serve industries such as generation, transmission, distribution, oil & gas, telecommunication,
mining and water and our strategic partnership ventures, primarily in Mexico and China, allow us to support our customers through
various product and service offerings.
x Power Conversion – applies the science and systems of power conversion to help drive the electric transformation of the world’s
energy infrastructure. Our product portfolio includes motors, generators, automation and control equipment and drives for energy
intensive industries such as marine, oil & gas, renewable energy, mining, rail, metals, test systems and water.
x Automation & Controls – serves as the Controls Center of Excellence for GE and is leading the next chapter in GE’s digital
industrial journey and transformation. In partnership with GE Digital, the Global Research Center, and GE businesses around the
world, we are focused on the future of control solutions – helping customers become more productive and efficient. Each year $21
billion of GE equipment is sold with controls inside of them. Controls are critical to keeping industry running and connected. They
are the brains of industrial equipment, connecting data and machines.
Lighting
x GE Lighting – focused on driving innovation and growth in light emitting diode (LED) and connected home technology. The
business offers LEDs in a variety of shapes, sizes, wattages and color temperatures. It’s also investing in the growing smart home
category, building a suite of connected lighting products with simple connection points that offer new opportunities to do more at
home.
x Current – delivers energy efficiency and productivity solutions for commercial and industrial customers. We combine infrastructure
technology like LED and solar with new sensor-enabled data networks and Predix-based digital applications to help our customers
reduce energy costs, better predict spend and gain business productivity insights. We partner with a wide variety of digital
companies to help expand our application catalog, and we offer flexible financing solutions that help our customers achieve faster
payback periods and better long-term value.
OPERATIONAL OVERVIEW
(Dollars in billions)
Equipment
Services
Equipment
Services
(a) Includes Current, powered by GE (a) Included $8.4 billion related to Alstom
(b) Reflects historical results of Appliances prior to its sale in June 2016 (b) Included $7.9 billion related to Alstom
EQUIPMENT/SERVICES REVENUES
Services Equipment
FINANCIAL OVERVIEW
(Dollars in billions)
Equipment
Services
(a) $15.4 billion, excluding $1.0 billion (a) $0.9 billion, excluding an insignificant (a) 6.2%, excluding (0.5)% related to Alstom*
related to Alstom* amount related to Alstom* (b) 1.5%, excluding 3.1% related to Alstom*,
(b) $9.7 billion, excluding $5.5 billion (b) $0.1 billion, excluding $0.2 billion related and (1.6)%, excluding 5.3% related to Alstom
related to Alstom*, and $7.1 billion, to Alstom*, and $(0.1) billion, excluding $0.4 and Appliances*
excluding $8.1 billion related to Alstom and billion related to Alstom and Appliances*
Appliances*
Volume (1.7) (0.1) x Energy Connections revenues increased driven by the effects of
Price (0.1) (0.1) Alstom, including higher equipment sales at Grid, partially offset
by core decreases at Industrial Solutions and Power
Foreign Exchange (0.2) -
Conversion. The increase in revenues was partially offset by
(Inflation)/Deflation N/A - lower prices, the effects of a stronger U.S. dollar, and lower
Mix N/A (0.1) other income, including the negative foreign exchange
transactional hedge impacts. Lighting revenues decreased
Productivity N/A (0.2) primarily due to lower traditional lighting sales and were partially
Other (0.1) (0.1) offset by increases in LED revenues and non-lighting product
Alstom 4.5 0.2
sales in Current, as well as lower prices. Revenues also
decreased as a result of the sale of Appliances in June 2016.
Appliances (3.7) (0.3)
x Energy Connections profit decreased primarily as a result of
2016 $ 15.1 $ 0.3 lower cost productivity, driven by core volume decreases, as
well as lower other income, including negative foreign exchange
transactional hedge impacts, and an unfavorable business mix,
partially offset by the effects of Alstom. Lighting profit decreased
as a result of the investment in Current, lower other income and
lower prices, partially offset by material deflation. Profit also
decreased due to the sale of Appliances in June 2016.
CAPITAL
BUSINESS OVERVIEW
As a result of the GE Capital Exit Plan, GE Capital’s Real Estate business, Consumer business and most of its Commercial Lending
and Leasing (CLL) business are classified as discontinued operations and are no longer reported as part of the Capital segment. As
such, all comparative prior period information has been reclassified to reflect Real Estate, Consumer and most of CLL as discontinued
operations. As of December 31, 2016, we have substantially completed the dispositions related to the GE Capital Exit Plan.
OPERATIONAL OVERVIEW
(Dollars in billions)
FINANCIAL OVERVIEW
(Dollars in billions)
Other Continuing
Verticals
(a) Interest and other financial charges and income taxes are
included in determining segment profit for the Capital
segment.
COMMENTARY: 2016 – 2015
Capital revenues increased $0.1 billion, or 1%, primarily due to lower impairments, higher gains and the effects of acquisitions, partially
offset by organic revenue declines, the effects of dispositions and the effects of currency exchange.
x Within Capital, Verticals revenues decreased by $0.2 billion, or 2%, as a result of organic revenue declines ($0.6 billion) and
the effects of dispositions ($0.2 billion), partially offset by higher gains ($0.3 billion), lower impairments ($0.2 billion), and the
effects of acquisitions.
x Other Capital revenues increased $0.3 billion, or 99%, as a result of lower impairments ($0.2 billion) and organic revenue
growth ($0.2 billion) partially offset by the effects of currency exchange ($0.1 billion).
Capital net loss decreased by $6.7 billion, or 84%, primarily due to the absence of the 2015 charges associated with the GE Capital Exit
Plan.
x Within Capital, Verticals net earnings increased by $0.2 billion, or 14%, as a result of higher gains ($0.2 billion) and lower
impairments ($0.2 billion), partially offset by the effects of dispositions ($0.1 billion) and core decreases ($0.1 billion).
x Other Capital net loss decreased by $6.5 billion, or 67%, primarily as a result of:
x Lower tax expenses of $6.2 billion primarily related to the absence of the 2015 charges for repatriation of foreign
earnings and write-off of deferred tax assets related to the GE Capital Exit Plan.
x 2016 tax benefits of $1.1 billion primarily related to increased tax efficiency of planned cash repatriations through
increased foreign tax credit utilization of $0.8 billion and an IRS tax settlement of $0.3 billion.
x Lower impairment expenses of $0.8 billion resulting from the 2015 impairment of a coal-fired power plant in the U.S.
x Higher treasury operation expenses of $1.3 billion reflecting excess interest expense, costs associated with the
February and May 2016 debt tenders and derivative activities that reduce or eliminate interest rate, currency or
market risk between financial assets and liabilities. We expect to continue to have excess interest costs in 2017. We
may engage in liability management actions, such as buying back debt, based on market and economic conditions.
x Charges of $0.3 billion associated with the preferred equity exchange that was completed in January 2016.
x Higher restructuring expenses of $0.2 billion.
Capital revenues decreased by $0.5 billion, or 5%, primarily as a result of organic revenue declines, primarily due to lower ENI, lower
gains and higher impairments, partially offset by the effects of acquisitions and dispositions.
x Within Capital, Verticals revenues decreased by $0.7 billion, or 6%, as a result of organic revenue declines ($0.9 billion), lower
gains ($0.2 billion) and higher impairments ($0.1 billion), partially offset by the effects of acquisitions and dispositions ($0.5
billion).
Capital net earnings decreased by $9.2 billion primarily due to charges associated with the GE Capital Exit Plan.
x Within Capital, Verticals net earnings increased by $0.1 billion, or 4%, as a result of lower equipment leased to others (ELTO)
impairments ($0.1 billion) related to our operating lease portfolio of commercial aircraft and the effects of acquisitions and
dispositions ($0.2 billion), partially offset by lower gains ($0.1 billion) and core decreases ($0.1 billion).
x Other Capital net earnings decreased by $9.3 billion primarily as a result of the GE Capital Exit Plan as follows:
x Higher tax expenses of $7.0 billion primarily related to expected repatriation of foreign earnings and write-off of
deferred tax assets related to the GE Capital Exit Plan.
x Higher treasury operation expenses of $1.0 billion reflecting excess interest expense, including costs associated with
the debt exchange completed in October 2015 and derivative activities that reduce or eliminate interest rate, currency
or market risk between financial assets and liabilities.
x The 2015 $0.8 billion impairment of a coal-fired power plant in the U.S. related to a decision in the fourth quarter to
exit the investment over time.
CORPORATE COSTS
(In millions) 2016 2015 2014
Total Corporate Items and Eliminations $ (4,226) $ (5,108) $ (6,225)
Less non-operating pension cost* (2,052) (2,764) (2,120)
Total Corporate costs (operating)* $ (2,175) $ (2,344) $ (4,105)
Less, restructuring and other charges, gains and NBCU settlement (134) (237) (1,697)
Adjusted Corporate costs (operating)* $ (2,040) $ (2,107) $ (2,408)
Revenues and other income increased $1.8 billion, primarily a result of:
x $2.4 billion of higher net gains from disposed and held for sale businesses, which included a $3.1 billion gain from the sale of our
Appliances business to Haier and a $0.4 billion gain from the sale of GE Asset Management to State Street Corporation in 2016,
partially offset by a $0.1 billion impairment charge related to a potential sale of a non-strategic platform in our Aviation business in
2016. Gains on disposed or held for sale businesses in 2015 included a $0.6 billion gain from the sale of our Signaling business,
and a $0.2 billion break-up fee paid by Electrolux AB due to the termination of the agreement to acquire the GE Appliances
business.
These increases to revenues and other income was partially offset by the following:
x $0.5 billion lower other income from a settlement related to the NBCU transaction in 2015, and
x $0.4 billion of higher inter-segment eliminations.
Revenues and other income increased $1.7 billion, primarily a result of:
x $1.0 billion of higher gains from disposed or held for sale businesses, which included a $0.2 billion break-up fee paid by Electrolux
AB due to the termination of the agreement to acquire the GE Appliances business,
x $0.5 billion higher other income from a settlement related to the NBCU transaction in 2015, and
x $0.2 billion of lower eliminations and other, which was driven by $0.4 billion of lower inter-segment eliminations, partially offset by
$0.2 billion lower licensing, GE Asset Management fees and other income.
These decreases to operating costs were partially offset by $0.4 billion of higher costs associated with our principal retirement plans
including the effects of lower discount rates and updated mortality assumptions.
RESTRUCTURING
Restructuring actions are an essential component of our cost improvement efforts to both existing operations and those recently
acquired. Restructuring and other charges relate primarily to workforce reductions, facility exit costs associated with the consolidation of
sales, service and manufacturing facilities, the integration of recent acquisitions, including Alstom, and other asset write-downs. We
continue to closely monitor the economic environment and may undertake further restructuring actions to more closely align our cost
structure with earnings goals.
For 2016, restructuring and other charges were $3.6 billion of which approximately $2.3 billion was reported in cost of products/services
and $1.2 billion was reported in other costs and expenses (SG&A). These activities were primarily at Power, Oil & Gas and Energy
Connections & Lighting. Cash expenditures for restructuring were approximately $1.0 billion in 2016.
For 2015, restructuring and other charges were $1.7 billion of which approximately $1.0 billion was reported in cost of products/services
and $0.6 billion was reported in other costs and expenses (SG&A). These activities were primarily at Oil & Gas, Corporate and Energy
Connections & Lighting. Cash expenditures for restructuring were approximately $0.4 billion in 2015.
For 2014, restructuring and other charges were $1.8 billion of which approximately $1.0 billion was reported in cost of products/services
and $0.5 billion was reported in other costs and expenses (SG&A). These activities were primarily at Power, Corporate and Oil & Gas.
Cash expenditures for restructuring were approximately $0.6 billion in 2014.
As discussed in the Segment Operations section within the MD&A, certain amounts are not included in industrial operating segment
results because they are excluded from measurement of their operating performance for internal and external purposes. The amount of
costs and gains (losses) not included in segment results follows.
COSTS
GAINS (LOSSES)
Power $ - $ - $ -
Renewable Energy - - -
Oil & Gas - - 0.1
Aviation (0.2)(a) - -
Healthcare - 0.1 (c) -
Transportation - 0.6 (d) -
Energy Connections & Lighting 3.1 (b) 0.1 (e) -
Total $ 3.0 $ 0.9 $ 0.1
(a) Largely due to impairment related to a potential sale of a non-strategic platform in our Aviation business.
(b) Related to the sale of our Appliances business in the second quarter of 2016.
(c) Related to the Clarient business disposition in 2015.
(d) Related to the Signaling business disposition in 2015.
(e) Related to the Intelligent Platforms Embedded Systems Products business disposition in 2015.
DISCONTINUED OPERATIONS
Discontinued operations primarily relate to our financial services businesses as a result of the GE Capital Exit Plan and include our
Consumer business, most of our CLL business, our Real Estate business and U.S. mortgage business (WMC). All of these operations
were previously reported in the Capital segment.
We have entered into Transitional Service Agreements (TSA) with and provided certain indemnifications to buyers of GE Capital’s
assets. Under the TSAs, GE Capital provides various services for terms generally between 12 and 24 months and receives a level of
cost reimbursement from the buyers.
At December 31, 2016, we provided specific indemnifications to buyers of GE Capital’s assets that amounted to $2.6 billion, for which
we have recognized related liabilities of $0.3 billion. In addition, in connection with the 2015 public offering and sale of Synchrony
Financial, GE Capital indemnified Synchrony Financial and its directors, officers, and employees against the liabilities of GECC's
businesses other than historical liabilities of the businesses that are part of Synchrony Financial's ongoing operations.
As part of the GE Capital Exit Plan, we entered into hedges (on an after-tax basis) of our net investment in businesses that we plan to
dispose. These derivatives are treated as standalone hedges and the mark-to-market valuation changes on the derivatives are
recorded in earnings of discontinued operations.
Results of operations, financial position and cash flows for these businesses are separately reported as discontinued operations for all
periods presented.
The 2016 loss from discontinued operations, net of taxes, primarily reflected the following:
x $1.1 billion after-tax loss at our CLL business (including $0.9 billion after-tax loss on planned disposals), and
x $0.1 billion after-tax loss at our Consumer business (including $0.3 billion after-tax loss on planned disposals).
x 2016 losses were partially offset by a $0.2 billion tax benefit related to an IRS tax settlement in our discontinued insurance
operations.
The 2015 loss from discontinued operations, net of taxes, primarily reflected the following:
x $7.9 billion after-tax loss at our CLL business (including $8.7 billion after-tax loss on planned disposals),
x $2.0 billion after-tax loss at our Real Estate business (including $2.0 billion after-tax loss on planned disposals), and
x $0.1 billion after-tax effect of incremental reserves related to retained representation and warranty obligations to repurchase
previously sold loans on the 2007 sale of WMC.
x 2015 losses were partially offset by $2.5 billion after-tax earnings at our Consumer business, primarily $3.4 billion after-tax gain on
the split-off of Synchrony Financial, $0.5 billion after-tax gain on other transactions closed, partially offset by $0.8 billion after-tax
loss on disposals and $0.6 billion after-tax loss from operations.
The 2014 earnings from discontinued operations, net of taxes, primarily reflected the following:
x $3.2 billion of after-tax earnings from operations at our Consumer business,
x $1.8 billion of after-tax earnings from operations at our CLL business,
x $1.0 billion of after-tax earnings from operations at our Real Estate business, and
x $0.1 billion tax benefit related to the extinguishment of our loss-sharing arrangement for excess interest claims associated with the
2008 sale of GE Money Japan.
x 2014 earnings were partially offset by a $0.2 billion after-tax loss on incremental reserves related to retained representation and
warranty obligations to repurchase previously sold loans on the 2007 sale of WMC.
See Note 2 to the consolidated financial statements for additional information related to discontinued operations.
68 GE 2016 FORM 10-K
It is our policy to allocate Capital interest expense that is either directly attributable or related to discontinued operations. The allocation
is based on a market based leverage ratio, taking into consideration the underlying characteristics of the assets for the specific
discontinued operations. Interest expense that is associated with debt that is not assumed by the buyer or required to be repaid as a
result of the disposal transaction is reflected in other continuing operations after the disposal occurs.
x Postretirement benefit plans cost decreased $0.9 billion, primarily because of the effects of higher discount rates, lower service
cost resulting from fewer active principal pension plans participants and lower loss amortization related to our principal pension
plans.
x We updated our mortality assumptions at December 31, 2016 based on guidance issued by the Society of Actuaries to reflect
updated rates and methodology for future mortality improvements. The new mortality assumptions decreased our principal
pension plans obligations by $0.6 billion at year-end 2016.
x Postretirement benefit plans cost increased $0.2 billion, primarily because of the effects of lower discount rates and new mortality
assumptions, which were partially offset by lower loss amortization related to our principal pension plans and by changes to
principal retiree benefit plans.
x In 2015, we amended our principal retiree benefit plans affecting post-65 retiree health and retiree life insurance for certain
production participants. These plan amendments reduced our principal postretirement benefit obligations by approximately $3.3
billion.
GE 2016 FORM 10-K 69
Looking forward, our key assumptions affecting 2017 postretirement benefits costs are as follows:
x Discount rate at 4.11% for our principal pension plans, reflecting current long-term interest rates.
x Assumed long-term return on our principal pension plan assets of 7.5%.
We expect 2017 postretirement benefit plans cost to be about the same as 2016.
PENSION COSTS
GAAP AND NON-GAAP PENSION COSTS
Our operating pension cost for our principal pension plans includes only those components that relate to benefits earned by active
employees during the period (service cost, prior service cost amortization and curtailment loss). Non-operating pension cost elements
such as interest cost, expected return on plan assets and non-cash amortization of actuarial gains and losses are excluded from this
measure. We expect operating pension cost to be approximately $1.4 billion in 2017.
FUNDED STATUS
x The GE Pension Plan deficit increased in 2016 primarily due to the growth in pension liabilities and lower discount rates, partially
offset by investment performance and changes in mortality assumptions.
x The increase in the underfunding of our other pension plans was primarily attributable to lower discount rates and liability growth,
partially offset by investment performance and employer contributions.
x The decrease in principal retiree benefit plans deficit was primarily attributable to employer contributions and lower costs from new
healthcare supplier contracts, partially offset by the growth in retiree benefit liabilities.
The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) determines minimum pension funding requirements in the U.S. We made a
$0.3 billion contribution to the GE Pension Plan in 2016. We did not contribute to the GE Pension Plan in 2015. On an ERISA basis, our
preliminary estimate is that the GE Pension Plan was approximately 95% funded at January 1, 2017. The ERISA funded status is
higher than the GAAP funded status (71% funded) primarily because the ERISA prescribed interest rate is calculated using an average
interest rate. As a result, the ERISA interest rate is higher than the year-end GAAP discount rate. The higher ERISA interest rate lowers
pension liabilities for ERISA funding purposes. Our current estimate projects $1.7 billion of pension funding contributions to the GE
Pension Plan in 2017 and approximately $1.6 billion in 2018.
We expect to contribute $0.9 billion to our other pension plans in 2017, as compared to $0.8 billion in 2016 and $0.5 billion in 2015. GE
Capital is a member of certain GE pension plans. As a result of the GE Capital Exit Plan, GE Capital will have additional funding
obligations for these pension plans. These obligations do not relate to the Verticals and are recognized as an expense in GE Capital’s
other continuing operations when they become probable and estimable. See the Intercompany Transactions between GE and GE
Capital section within the MD&A for further information.
We also expect to contribute $0.5 billion to our principal retiree benefit plans in 2017 as compared to $0.4 billion in 2016 and $0.5 billion
in 2015.
The funded status of our postretirement benefit plans and future effects on operating results depend on economic conditions, interest
rates and investment performance. See the Critical Accounting Estimates section within the MD&A and Notes 12 and 29 to the
consolidated financial statements for further information about our benefit plans and the effects of this activity on our financial
statements.
INCOME TAXES
GE pays the income taxes it owes in every country in which it does business. While GE and GE Capital file a consolidated U.S. federal
income tax return, many factors impact our income tax expense and cash tax payments. The most significant factor is that we conduct
business in approximately 180 countries and more than half of our revenue is earned outside the U.S., often in countries with lower tax
rates than in the U.S. We reinvest most of our foreign earnings overseas to be able to fund our active non-U.S. business operations.
Our tax liability is also affected by U.S. and foreign tax incentives designed to encourage certain investments, like research and
development; and by acquisitions, dispositions and tax law changes. Finally, our tax returns are routinely audited, and settlements of
issues raised in these audits sometimes affect our tax rates.
GE and GE Capital file a consolidated U.S. federal income tax return. This enables GE and GE Capital to use tax deductions and
credits of one member of the group to reduce the tax that otherwise would have been payable by another member of the group. The
effective tax rate reflects the benefit of these tax reductions in the consolidated return. GE makes cash payments to GE Capital for tax
reductions and GE Capital pays for tax increases at the time GE’s tax payments are due.
CONSOLIDATED
(Dollars in billions)
x The consolidated income tax rate for 2016 was (5.1)%. The effective tax rate was negative largely because of increased tax
benefits from global operations including benefits from the repatriation of GE non-U.S. earnings, benefits of integrating our existing
services business with Alstom’s services business and foreign tax credit planning at GE Capital to reduce the tax cost of
anticipated repatriations of foreign cash.
x The decrease in the consolidated provision for income tax was attributable to the increased benefit from global operations and the
non-repeat of the 2015 charges associated with the GE Capital Exit Plan.
x As discussed in Note 14 to the consolidated financial statements, in 2015 in conjunction with the GE Capital Exit Plan, we incurred
tax expense of $6.3 billion related to expected repatriation of foreign earnings and write-off of deferred tax assets.
x The consolidated tax provision includes $1.5 billion and $1.0 billion for GE (excluding GE Capital) for 2015 and 2016, respectively.
x The consolidated income tax rate for 2015 was greater than 35% due to charges associated with the GE Capital Exit Plan.
x The increase in the income tax expense is primarily due to the tax expense incurred as part of the GE Capital Exit Plan.
x The consolidated tax provision includes $1.6 billion and $1.5 billion for GE (excluding GE Capital) for 2014 and 2015, respectively.
Absent the effects of the GE Capital Exit Plan, our consolidated income tax provision is lower because of the benefits of lower-taxed
global operations. There is a benefit from global operations as non-U.S. income is subject to local country tax rates that are significantly
below the 35% U.S. statutory rate. These non-U.S. earnings have been indefinitely reinvested outside the U.S. and are not subject to
current U.S. income tax. Most of these earnings have been reinvested in active non-U.S. business operations and we do not intend to
repatriate these earnings to fund U.S. operations. The rate of tax on our indefinitely reinvested non-U.S. earnings is below the 35% U.S.
statutory tax rate because we have significant business operations subject to tax in countries where the tax on that income is lower than
the U.S. statutory rate and because GE funds certain non-U.S. operations through foreign companies that are subject to low foreign
taxes.
A substantial portion of the benefit related to business operations subject to tax in countries where the tax on that income is lower than
the U.S. statutory rate is derived from our GECAS aircraft leasing operations located in Ireland, from our Power operations located in
Switzerland and Hungary, and our Healthcare operations in Europe.
We expect our ability to benefit from non-U.S. income taxed at less than the U.S. rate to continue, subject to changes in U.S. or foreign
law. In addition, since this benefit depends on management’s intention to indefinitely reinvest amounts outside the U.S., our tax
provision will increase to the extent we no longer indefinitely reinvest foreign earnings.
Our benefit from lower-taxed global operations increased in 2016 because of the non-repeat of the 2015 tax expense associated with
the GE Capital Exit Plan and because of benefits from the repatriation of GE non-U.S. earnings, benefits of integrating our existing
services business with Alstom’s services business and foreign tax credit planning at GE Capital to reduce the tax cost of anticipated
repatriations of foreign cash, all of which are included in “other” in the table above.
Our benefits from lower-taxed global operations decreased in 2015 because of the tax expense associated with the GE Capital Exit
Plan.
OTHER INFORMATION
To the extent non-U.S. operating income increases, we would expect tax benefits to increase, subject to management’s intention to
indefinitely reinvest those earnings. Included in 2015 is a tax expense of $6.1 billion related to the expected repatriation of foreign
earnings and write-off of deferred tax assets in conjunction with the GE Capital Exit Plan.
The tax benefit from non-U.S. income taxed at a local country rate rather than the U.S. statutory tax rate is reported in the caption “Tax
on global activities including exports” in the effective tax rate reconciliation in Note 14 to the consolidated financial statements.
A more detailed analysis of differences between the U.S. federal statutory rate and the consolidated effective rate, as well as other
information about our income tax provisions, is provided in the Critical Accounting Estimates section within the MD&A and Note 14 to
the consolidated financial statements. The nature of business activities and associated income taxes differ for GE and for GE Capital;
therefore, a separate analysis of each is presented in the paragraphs that follow.
We believe that the GE effective tax rate and provision for income taxes are best analyzed in relation to GE earnings before income
taxes excluding the GE Capital net earnings from continuing operations, as GE tax expense does not include taxes on GE Capital
earnings. For further information on this calculation, see the Supplemental Information section within the MD&A.
x The GE provision for income taxes decreased in 2016 because of increased benefits from lower-taxed global operations ($0.3
billion), including benefits from the repatriation of GE non-U.S. earnings and benefits of integrating our existing services business
with Alstom’s services business.
x The GE provision for income taxes also decreased due to increases in the benefit from deductible stock losses ($0.4 billion).
x Partially offsetting these decreases was a lower benefit of audit resolutions ($0.1 billion) shown below.
x The GE provision for income taxes decreased in 2015 because of increased benefits from lower-taxed global operations ($0.2
billion), including benefits from integrating our existing services business with Alstom’s services business.
x The GE provision for income taxes also decreased due to increases in the benefit of audit resolutions ($0.2 billion) shown below
and deductible stock losses ($0.2 billion).
x Partially offsetting these decreases was an increase in income taxed at rates above the average tax rate ($0.5 billion).
Resolution of audit matters reduced the GE provision for income taxes by $0.2 billion, $0.3 billion and $0.1 billion in 2016, 2015 and
2014, respectively. The effects of such resolutions are included in the following captions in Note 14 to the consolidated financial
statements.
x The decrease in the income tax expense for GE Capital from an expense of $5.0 billion to a benefit of $1.4 billion is primarily due to
the non-recurrence of the $6.3 billion tax expense, discussed in Note 14 to the consolidated financial statements, related to the GE
Capital Exit Plan.
x The GE Capital tax expense also decreased in 2016 due to higher benefits from global operations including foreign tax credit
planning to reduce the tax cost of anticipated repatriations of foreign cash.
x The increase in the income tax expense from a benefit of $0.9 billion for 2014 to an expense of $5.0 billion for 2015 is primarily due
to the tax expense, discussed in Note 14 to the consolidated financial statements, related to the GE Capital Exit Plan.
GEOGRAPHIC DATA
Our global activities span all geographic regions and primarily encompass manufacturing for local and export markets, import and sale
of products produced in other regions, leasing of aircraft, sourcing for our plants domiciled in other global regions and provision of
financial services within these regional economies. Thus, when countries or regions experience currency and/or economic stress, we
often have increased exposure to certain risks, but also often have new opportunities that include, among other things, expansion of
industrial activities through purchases of companies or assets at reduced prices and lower U.S. debt financing costs.
Financial results of our non-U.S. activities reported in U.S. dollars are affected by currency exchange. We use a number of techniques
to manage the effects of currency exchange, including selective borrowings in local currencies and selective hedging of significant
cross-currency transactions. Such principal currencies are the euro, the pound sterling, the Brazilian real and the Chinese renminbi.
REVENUES
Revenues are classified according to the region to which products and services are sold. For purposes of this analysis, the U.S. is
presented separately from the remainder of the Americas.
GEOGRAPHIC REVENUES
V%
(Dollars in billions) 2016 2015 2014 2016-2015 2015-2014
The increase in non-US. revenues in 2016 was primarily due to increases of 32% in Europe (primarily due to Alstom), 12% in Middle
East, North Africa and Turkey (MENAT) and 35% in India, partially offset by a decrease of 10% in Latin America.
The decrease in non-U.S. revenues in 2015 was primarily due to decreases in growth markets of 11% in Canada and 29% in Australia
& New Zealand (ANZ), partially offset by an increase of 2% in Middle East, North Africa and Turkey (MENAT) and 1% in China.
The effects of foreign currency fluctuations decreased earnings by $0.3 billion in 2016. The effects of foreign currency fluctuations
decreased earnings in 2015 by $0.7 billion.
ASSETS
We classify certain assets that cannot meaningfully be associated with specific geographic areas as “Other Global” for this purpose.
The decrease in total assets of non-U.S. operations on a continuing basis reflected a decrease primarily in Europe driven by the
strengthening of the U.S. dollar against the euro and pound sterling, coupled with a decrease in time deposits in line with debt
maturities at GE Capital.
On June 23, 2016, a referendum in the United Kingdom (U.K.) was approved to withdraw from the European Union. The referendum
was advisory and the terms of any withdrawal are subject to a negotiation period that could last for two years after the U.K. government
initiates the withdrawal process. The approval of the referendum had, and may continue to have, an impact on foreign currency
exchange rates, among other things. We actively manage our exposure to the U.K. and do not anticipate a material economic impact
from our currency exposure as a result of the recent decision by the U.K. to exit the European Union.
See Notes 20 and 29 to the consolidated financial statements for further information about our risk exposures, our use of derivatives,
and the effects of this activity on our financial statements.
x Cash and equivalents decreased $22.4 billion. GE Cash and equivalents increased $0.2 billion due to continuing cash flows
from operating activities of $30.0 billion (including common dividends from GE Capital of $20.1 billion), proceeds from the sale of
our Appliances business of $4.8 billion and a short-term loan from GE Capital of $1.3 billion. This is partially offset by treasury
stock net purchases of $21.4 billion (cash basis), including $11.4 billion paid under ASR agreements, common dividends of $8.5
billion, net PP&E additions of $2.7 billion, business acquisitions of $2.3 billion and software spend of $0.7 billion. GE Capital Cash
and equivalents decreased $22.5 billion primarily driven by $58.8 billion net repayments of debt, $20.4 billion in payments of
dividends to shareowners and a short-term loan to GE of $1.3 billion, partially offset by $59.9 billion in proceeds from business
dispositions and $0.8 billion in proceeds from the sale of receivables originated in our Appliances business and sold to Haier. See
the Statement of Cash Flows section of MD&A for additional information.
x Investment securities increased $12.3 billion, primarily driven by investing excess cash in longer term investments to achieve
higher yield at GE Capital. See Note 3 to the consolidated financial statements for additional information.
x All other assets decreased $9.6 billion, primarily due to maturities of time deposits in line with debt maturities at GE Capital. See
Note 9 to the consolidated financial statements for additional information.
x Assets of discontinued operations decreased $106.1 billion, primarily due to the disposition of CLL businesses of $89.2 billion
at GE Capital. See Note 2 to the consolidated financial statements for additional information.
x Borrowings decreased $61.4 billion, primarily due to net repayment of debt at GE Capital. See Note 10 to the consolidated
financial statements for additional information.
x Liabilities of discontinued operations decreased $42.3 billion, primarily driven by the disposition of CLL businesses of $34.7
billion at GE Capital. See Note 2 to the consolidated financial statements for additional information.
x Common stock held in treasury increased $19.5 billion, primarily due to treasury stock purchases of $22.0 billion (book basis),
including $11.4 billion repurchased under ASR agreements. This was partially offset by treasury stock issuances of $2.6 billion.
See Note 15 to the consolidated financial statements for additional information.
Our liquidity and borrowing plans for GE and GE Capital are established within the context of our annual financial and strategic planning
processes. At GE, our liquidity and funding plans take into account the liquidity necessary to fund our operating commitments, which
include primarily purchase obligations for inventory and equipment, payroll and general expenses (including pension funding). We also
take into account our capital allocation and growth objectives, including paying dividends, repurchasing shares, investing in research
and development and acquiring industrial businesses. At GE, we rely primarily on cash generated through our operating activities, any
dividend payments from GE Capital, and also have historically maintained a commercial paper program that we regularly use to fund
operations in the U.S., principally within the quarters.
During 2017, GE plans to incur new long-term debt to refinance existing unsecured term debt, finance the Baker Hughes transaction,
and for other corporate purposes. This new debt may consist of new unsecured term debt issued by GE or intercompany arrangements
between GE and GE Capital utilizing GE Capital’s excess unsecured term debt. GE maintains a commercial paper program with a
balance of $1.5 billion at December 31, 2016.
Based on asset and liability management actions we have taken, GE Capital does not plan to issue any incremental GE Capital senior
unsecured term debt until 2019. GE Capital’s global commercial paper issuances total $5.0 billion at December 31, 2016. GE Capital
mainly relies on excess cash positions, cash generated through dispositions, and the cash flow from our Verticals to fund our debt
maturities, including current portion of long-term debt ($18.2 billion at December 31, 2016), and our operating and interest costs. GE
Capital’s liquidity position is targeted to meet its obligations under both normal and stressed conditions. We expect to maintain an
elevated liquidity position as we generate cash from asset sales, returning to more normalized levels in 2019. During this period we
expect to continue to have excess interest costs as asset sales have outpaced our debt maturities. While we maintain elevated liquidity
levels, we may engage in liability management actions, such as buying back debt, based on market and economic conditions in order to
reduce our excess interest costs. In 2016, we repurchased $6.7 billion of long-term unsecured debt and $5.8 billion of subordinated
debentures, resulting in a pre-tax loss of $0.6 billion.
We maintain a detailed liquidity policy for GE Capital that defines GE Capital’s liquidity risk tolerance under stress based on its liquidity
sources, and a comprehensive framework for managing liquidity risk including metrics to identify and monitor liquidity risk and
procedures to escalate and address potential issues.
On December 2, 2015, $87.7 billion of senior unsecured notes and $4.9 billion of commercial paper was assumed by GE upon its
merger with GE Capital. On the GE balance sheet, assumed debt is presented in borrowings with an offsetting receivable from GE
Capital. On the GE Capital balance sheet, assumed debt is reflected as an intercompany payable to GE presented in borrowings (see
Note 10 for additional information). The following table illustrates total GE and GE Capital external debt and debt assumed by GE as of
December 31, 2016.
(a) Includes $1.6 billion elimination of intercompany borrowings between GE and GE Capital.
LIQUIDITY SOURCES
In addition to GE cash of $10.5 billion at December 31, 2016, GE Capital maintained liquidity sources of $50.5 billion that consisted of
cash and equivalents of $37.6 billion, high-quality investments of $11.5 billion and cash and equivalents of $1.4 billion classified as
discontinued operations. Additionally, at December 31, 2016, we have $20.0 billion of committed unused credit lines extended by 36
banks in a syndicated credit facility agreement. GE Capital has the right to compel GE to borrow under such credit lines and transfer
the proceeds as loans to GE Capital.
(a) At December 31, 2016, $3.5 billion of GE cash and equivalents was held in countries with currency controls that may restrict the transfer of
funds to the U.S. or limit our ability to transfer funds to the U.S. without incurring substantial costs. These funds are available to fund
operations and growth in these countries and we do not currently anticipate a need to transfer these funds to the U.S.
(b) At December 31, 2016, GE Capital cash and equivalents of about $0.5 billion was primarily in insurance entities and was subject to regulatory
restrictions.
(c) Of this amount at December 31, 2016, $3.3 billion is held outside of the U.S. and is available to fund operations and other growth of non-U.S.
subsidiaries; it is also available to fund our needs in the U.S. on a short-term basis through short-term loans, without being subject to U.S. tax.
Under the Internal Revenue Code, these loans are permitted to be outstanding for 30 days or less and the total of all such loans is required to
be outstanding for less than 60 days during the year. If we were to repatriate this cash, we would be subject to additional U.S. income taxes
and foreign withholding taxes.
COMMERCIAL PAPER
GE Capital commercial paper maturities have historically been funded principally through new commercial paper issuances and at GE
are substantially repaid before quarter-end using indefinitely reinvested overseas cash, which as discussed above, is available for use
in the U.S. on a short-term basis without being subject to U.S. tax.
We securitize financial assets as an alternative source of funding. At December 31, 2016, consolidated non-recourse securitization
borrowings were $0.4 billion.
We have two deposit-taking banks outside of the U.S., which are classified as discontinued operations, and neither deposit-taking
platform will be retained after the planned completion of the remaining GE Capital Exit Plan dispositions in Europe in 2017. On April 18,
2016, we completed the sale of the deposit-taking bank in the U.S., GE Capital Bank, an industrial bank.
Exchange rate and interest rate risks are managed with a variety of techniques, including match funding and selective use of
derivatives. We use derivatives to mitigate or eliminate certain financial and market risks because we conduct business in diverse
markets around the world and local funding is not always efficient. In addition, we use derivatives to adjust the debt we are issuing to
match the fixed or floating nature of the assets we are originating. We apply strict policies to manage each of these risks, including
prohibitions on speculative activities. Following is an analysis of the potential effects of changes in interest rates and currency exchange
rates using so-called “shock” tests that seek to model the effects of shifts in rates. Such tests are inherently limited based on the
assumptions used (described further below) and should not be viewed as a forecast; actual effects would depend on many variables,
including market factors and the composition of the Company’s assets and liabilities at that time.
x It is our policy to minimize exposure to interest rate changes. We fund our financial investments using debt or a combination of
debt and hedging instruments so that the interest rates of our borrowings match the expected interest rate profile on our assets. To
test the effectiveness of our hedging actions, we assumed that, on January 1, 2016, interest rates decreased by 100 basis points
across the yield curve (a “parallel shift” in that curve) and further assumed that the decrease remained in place for the next 12
months. Based on the year-end 2016 portfolio and holding all other assumptions constant, we estimated that our consolidated net
earnings for the next 12 months, starting in January 2016, would decline by less than $0.1 billion as a result of this parallel shift in
the yield curve.
x It is our policy to minimize currency exposures and to conduct operations either within functional currencies or using the protection
of hedge strategies. We analyzed year-end 2016 consolidated currency exposures, including derivatives designated and effective
as hedges, to identify assets and liabilities denominated in other than their relevant functional currencies. For such assets and
liabilities, we then evaluated the effects of a 10% shift in exchange rates between those currencies and the U.S. dollar, holding all
other assumptions constant. This analysis indicated that our 2016 consolidated net earnings would decline by less than $0.3 billion
as a result of such a shift in exchange rates. This analysis excludes any translation impact from changes in exchange rates on our
financial results and any offsetting effect from the forecasted future transactions that are economically hedged.
On September 23, 2016, Standard and Poor’s Global Ratings (S&P) lowered GE’s and GE Capital’s long-term unsecured debt ratings
to AA- from AA+. The A-1+ short-term funding rating from S&P remained unchanged. On October 31, 2016, GE announced an
agreement with Baker Hughes as previously discussed in the Consolidated Results section of MD&A. Moody’s, S&P and Fitch Ratings
(Fitch) affirmed GE’s credit ratings following the announcement. Fitch has published credit ratings for GE and GE Capital since August
2, 2016.
We are disclosing these ratings to enhance understanding of our sources of liquidity and the effects of our ratings on our costs of funds.
Although we currently do not expect a downgrade in the credit ratings, our ratings may be subject to a revision or withdrawal at any time
by the assigning rating organization, and each rating should be evaluated independently of any other rating. For a description of some
of the potential consequences of a reduction in our credit ratings, see “Risk Factors – Financial Risks - Funding access/costs - Failure
to maintain our credit ratings, or conditions in the financial and credit markets, could adversely affect our access to capital markets,
funding costs and related margins, liquidity and competitive position.”
GE’s and GE Capital’s ratings are set forth in the table below.
GE Capital
Outlook Stable Stable Stable
Commercial paper P-1 A-1+ F1+
Senior notes A1 AA- AA-
Fair values of our derivatives can change significantly from period to period based on, among other factors, market movements and
changes in our positions. We manage counterparty credit risk (the risk that counterparties will default and not make payments to us
according to the terms of our standard master agreements) on an individual counterparty basis. Where we have agreed to netting of
derivative exposures with a counterparty, we offset our exposures with that counterparty and apply the value of collateral posted to us
to determine the net exposure. We actively monitor these net exposures against defined limits and take appropriate actions in
response, including requiring additional collateral.
Swap, forward and option contracts are executed under standard master agreements that typically contain mutual downgrade
provisions that provide the ability of the counterparty to require termination if the long-term credit ratings of the applicable GE entity
were to fall below A-/A3 or other ratings levels agreed upon with the counterparty. In certain of these master agreements, the
counterparty also has the ability to require termination if the short-term ratings of the applicable GE entity were to fall below A-1/P-1.
The net derivative liability after consideration of netting arrangements, outstanding interest payments and collateral posted by us under
these master agreements was estimated to be $0.4 billion at December 31, 2016.
See Notes 20 and 29 to the consolidated financial statements for further information about our risk exposures, our use of derivatives,
and the effects of this activity on our financial statements.
GE provides implicit and explicit support to GE Capital through commitments, capital contributions and operating support. At December
31, 2016, GE debt assumed from GE Capital in connection with the merger of GE Capital into GE was $58.8 billion, and GE guaranteed
$47.5 billion of GE Capital debt. See Note 28 to the consolidated financial statements for further information on the guarantor financial
statements.
During 2016, we repurchased $22.0 billion of our common stock, including $11.4 billion repurchased under accelerated share
repurchase (ASR) agreements.
In December 2016, we entered into an ASR agreement with a financial institution that allowed us to repurchase GE common stock at a
price below its volume weighted-average price during a given period. During the fourth quarter, we paid $2.2 billion and received and
classified as treasury shares an initial delivery of 59,177,215 shares based on then-current market prices. The payment was recorded
as a reduction to shareowners’ equity, consisting of a $1.9 billion increase in treasury stock, which reflects the value of the shares
received upon initial delivery, and a $0.3 billion decrease in other capital, which reflects the value of the stock held back pending final
delivery.
We accounted for the ASR as two separate transactions: (i) 59,177,215 shares of common stock initially delivered to GE and $1.9
billion was accounted for as a treasury stock transaction and (ii) the unsettled contract of $0.3 billion was determined to be a forward
contract indexed to GE’s own common stock. The initial delivery of 59,177,215 shares resulted in an immediate reduction of the
outstanding shares used to calculate the weighted-average common shares outstanding for basic and diluted earnings per share. GE
has determined that the forward contract, indexed to its own common stock, met all the criteria for equity classification.
In the first quarter of 2017, we received the remaining 10,773,050 shares based on the final volume weighted-average price less the
negotiated discount.
We evaluate our cash flows performance by reviewing our industrial (non-GE Capital) businesses and GE Capital businesses
separately. Cash from operating activities (CFOA) is the principal source of cash generation for our industrial businesses.
GE CASH FLOWS
(Dollars in billions)
OPERATING CASH FLOWS INVESTING CASH FLOWS FINANCING CASH FLOWS
With respect to GE CFOA, we believe that it is useful to supplement our GE Statement of Cash Flows and to examine in a broader
context the business activities that provide and require cash.
The most significant source of cash in GE CFOA is customer-related activities, the largest of which is collecting cash resulting from
product or services sales. The most significant operating use of cash is to pay our suppliers, employees, tax authorities and others for a
wide range of material and services. Dividends from GE Capital represent the distribution of a portion of GE Capital retained earnings,
and are distinct from cash from continuing operations within the GE Capital businesses.
All other operating activities reflect cash sources and uses as well as non-cash adjustments to net income including those related to
taxes, interest, pension, contract assets and gains (losses) on principal business dispositions. See Note 26 to the consolidated financial
statements for further information.
See the Intercompany Transactions between GE and GE Capital section within the MD&A and Notes 4, 22 and 24 to the consolidated
financial statements for further information regarding certain transactions affecting our consolidated Statement of Cash Flows.
GE cash from operating activities-continuing operations increased $13.6 billion, primarily due to the following:
x GE Capital paid common dividends totaling $20.1 billion and $4.3 billion to GE in 2016 and 2015, respectively.
x Improvement of working capital of $3.6 billion, primarily due to increases in progress collections and accounts payable, partially
offset by an increase in inventory build.
x These increases were partially offset by the following decreases:
x $1.0 billion increase in income tax payments, including $1.4 billion in taxes related to the 2016 sale of our Appliances
business to Haier.
x Higher restructuring and interest payments of $0.6 billion and $0.4 billion, respectively, when compared to 2015.
x $0.5 billion of 2016 incentive compensation payments due to long-term performance awards. No such payments were
made in 2015.
x 2016 GE Pension Trust funding of $0.3 billion representing net sale proceeds associated with the July 1, 2016 sale of GE
Asset Management (GEAM) to State Street Corporation.
x The nonrecurrence of settlements related to the NBCU transaction of $0.5 billion and an Electrolux break-up fee of $0.2
billion received in 2015.
x See Note 26 to the consolidated financial statements for further information regarding cash sources and uses as well as non-cash
adjustments to net income reported as All other operating activities.
GE cash used for investing activities-continuing operations decreased $10.8 billion, primarily due to the following:
x Higher proceeds from principal business dispositions of $3.6 billion, primarily driven by the sale of our Appliances business to Haier
for proceeds of $4.8 billion and the sale of GEAM for proceeds of $0.4 billion in 2016, compared to $1.7 billion of total proceeds
from principal business dispositions in 2015.
x A decrease in business acquisition activity of $8.1 billion, primarily driven by the acquisition of Alstom for $10.1 billion in 2015.
x These decreases were partially offset by the funding of joint ventures of $0.4 billion in 2016, principally related to our Aviation
business (reflected in All other investing activities).
GE cash used for financing activities-continuing operations increased $19.2 billion, primarily due to the following:
x Net purchases of GE treasury shares of $21.4 billion, including $11.4 billion paid under ASR agreements compared to $1.1 billion
in 2015.
x This increase in cash usage was partially offset by the following decreases:
x A net increase in borrowings of $0.8 billion, primarily driven by a short-term loan from GE Capital to GE with remaining
principal of $1.3 billion in 2016 (the loan was fully repaid in January 2017).
x Lower dividends paid to shareowners of $0.8 billion due to lower shares outstanding in 2016 because of on-going
repurchases of GE treasury shares.
GE cash from operating activities-continuing operations increased $1.2 billion, primarily due to the following:
x GE Capital paid common dividends totaling $4.3 billion and $3.0 billion to GE in 2015 and 2014, respectively.
x Improvement of working capital of $0.6 billion, primarily related to increased collections on current receivables, partially offset by a
decrease in accounts payable and progress collections.
x Settlements related to the NBCU transaction of $0.5 billion and an Electrolux break-up fee of $0.2 billion received in 2015.
x These increases were partially offset by a $0.3 billion increase in income tax payments.
x See Note 26 to the consolidated financial statements for further information regarding cash sources and uses as well as non-cash
adjustments to net income reported as All other operating activities.
GE cash used for investing activities-continuing operations increased $6.9 billion, primarily due to the following:
x Higher business acquisition activity of $8.3 billion primarily driven by the 2015 acquisition of Alstom for $10.1 billion. This compares
to the 2014 acquisitions of certain Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. life-sciences business for $1.1 billion, Cameron’s Reciprocating
Compression Division for $0.6 billion and API Healthcare (API) for $0.3 billion. Partially offset by;
x Higher proceeds from principal business dispositions of $1.1 billion in 2015, primarily relating to Signaling of $0.8 billion and
Intelligent Platforms Embedded Systems Products of $0.5 billion in 2015, compared to $0.6 billion of proceeds from principal
business dispositions in 2014.
GE cash used for financing activities-continuing operations increased $1.5 billion, primarily due to the following:
x The 2015 repayment of $2.0 billion of GE unsecured notes, partially offset by;
x The 2015 issuance of unsecured notes of $3.4 billion compared to $3.0 billion in 2014.
(Dollars in billions)
GE Capital cash from operating activities decreased $3.1 billion, primarily due to the following:
x Higher net income tax payments of $2.6 billion.
x Higher cash paid for interest reflecting excess interest expense, and costs associated with the February and May 2016 debt
tenders.
x These decreases were partially offset by a net increase in cash collateral received from counterparties on derivative contracts of
$1.7 billion.
x See Note 26 to the consolidated financial statements regarding All other operating activities.
GE Capital cash from investing activities decreased $12.2 billion, primarily due to the following:
x Net proceeds from the sales of our CLL, Consumer and Real Estate businesses of $59.9 billion compared to $79.6 billion in 2015.
x Liquidity investments of $11.5 billion purchased in 2016.
x Net cash received from derivative settlements of $0.4 billion compared to $4.4 billion in 2015.
x An increase in net financing receivables of $1.5 billion, including $4.3 billion in additions, partially offset by $2.1 billion received
from the refinancing of our Receivables Facility and proceeds from the sale of receivables purchased from our Appliances business
of $0.8 billion in 2016.
x A short-term loan from GE Capital to GE with remaining principal of $1.3 billion in 2016 (the loan was fully repaid in January 2017).
x These decreases were partially offset by the following increases:
x Investment and maturity of $20.8 billion related to high quality interest bearing deposits reflecting an investment of $10.4
billion in 2015 that matured in 2016.
x Other investing activities of $3.9 billion, primarily due to a reduction in net additions to property, plant & equipment of $1.6
billion and an increase in aircraft deposits received of $1.5 billion.
x The 2015 acquisition of Milestone Aviation Group resulting in net cash paid of $1.7 billion.
GE Capital cash used for financing activities increased $15.0 billion, primarily due to the following:
x GE Capital paid common dividends to GE totaling $20.1 billion compared to $4.3 billion in 2015, partially offset by;
x Lower net repayments of borrowings of $58.8 billion compared to $59.3 billion in 2015, reflecting $2.1 billion of repayments
resulting from the refinancing of our Receivables Facility in 2016.
GE Capital cash from operating activities decreased $4.7 billion, primarily due to the following:
x Net decrease in cash collateral received from counterparties on derivative contracts of $3.0 billion.
x A decrease in accounts payable of $0.4 billion.
x See Note 26 to the consolidated financial statements regarding All other operating activities.
GE Capital cash from investing activities increased $49.1 billion, primarily due to the following:
x In 2015, we closed the sales of certain of our CLL, Real Estate and Consumer businesses for proceeds of $35.2 billion, $27.7
billion and $16.7 billion, respectively.
x These increases were partially offset by the following decreases:
x 2015 investment of $10.4 billion in high quality interest bearing deposits (with a maturity date of April 2016).
x Aircraft deposits received of $0.1 billion compared to $2.3 billion in 2014.
x The net cash payment of $1.7 billion for the 2015 acquisition of Milestone Aviation Group.
x Net activity from equity method investments of $1.4 billion compared to $0.3 billion in 2014.
GE Capital cash used for financing activities increased $27.7 billion, primarily due to the following:
x Higher net repayments of borrowings of $25.7 billion primarily driven by an increase in short-term and long-term debt maturities of
$59.3 billion compared to $33.6 billion in 2014.
x GE Capital paid higher common dividends to GE totaling $4.3 billion compared to $3.0 billion in 2014.
GE Capital cash from operating activities-discontinued operations decreased $14.3 billion, primarily due to the following:
x Lower cash generated as a result of certain dispositions in our CLL business of $9.9 billion and Consumer business of $5.9 billion
(primarily resulting from the 2015 split-off of Synchrony Financial), partially offset by our Real Estate business of $2.4 billion. In
connection with the GE Capital Exit Plan, we closed a vast majority of our Consumer business and substantially all of our CLL and
Real Estate business dispositions in 2015 and 2016.
x Lower cash paid for interest, partially offset by higher net income tax payments that are included in the above.
GE Capital cash used for investing activities-discontinued operations increased $11.4 billion, primarily due to the following:
x The sale of bank deposits for $16.5 billion in net cash paid in conjunction with the sale of GE Capital Bank’s U.S. online deposit
platform during 2016.
x The sale of bank deposits and other investments for $1.1 billion in net cash paid related to our Consumer platform during 2016.
x These increases were partially offset by Other investing activities of $6.2 billion, primarily higher net cash received on investment
securities of $3.5 billion (including the sale of investment securities resulting from the split-off of Synchrony Financial) and cash
generated from 2015 collections of financing receivables and other investing assets prior to disposition of the underlying business.
GE Capital cash used for financing activities-discontinued operations decreased $7.3 billion, primarily due to the following:
x Lower repayments of borrowings of $9.3 billion as a result of certain dispositions in our Consumer (including the 2015 split-off of
Synchrony Financial), CLL and Real Estate businesses, partially offset by;
x Other financing activities of $2.1 billion primarily newly issued debt of $1.5 billion in 2016.
GE Capital cash from operating activities-discontinued operations decreased $3.6 billion, primarily due to the following:
x Lower cash generated as a result of certain dispositions in our Consumer business of $2.4 billion, CLL business of $1.2 billion and
our Real Estate business of $0.3 billion. In connection with the GE Capital Exit Plan, we closed a vast majority of our Real Estate
business dispositions in 2015 and split-off of Synchrony Financial in 2015.
x Included in the above were lower net income tax payments of $1.0 billion.
GE Capital cash used for investing activities-discontinued operations decreased $22.1 billion, primarily due to the following:
x A decrease in net investing activities of $20.0 billion primarily related to decreased financing receivables, a reduction in net
additions to property, plant and equipment and decreased investment in other assets (including the 2015 split-off of Synchrony
Financial) as a result of certain dispositions in connection with the GE Capital Exit Plan in 2015.
x Lower cash used for purchases of investment securities of $2.1 billion.
GE Capital cash from financing activities-discontinued operations decreased $30.4 billion, primarily due to the following:
Higher net repayments of borrowings of $17.5 billion as a result of certain 2015 dispositions in our Consumer (including the 2015
split-off of Synchrony Financial), CLL and Real Estate businesses in connection with the GE Capital Exit Plan.
Cash proceeds from bank deposits of $0.5 billion compared to $10.5 billion in 2014 (including the 2015 split-off of Synchrony
Financial).
Proceeds from the initial public offering of Synchrony Financial in 2014 of $2.8 billion.
We are repositioning GE to be the world’s best infrastructure and technology company, with a smaller financial services division. Our
focus is on driving infrastructure leadership, investing in innovation and achieving a culture of simplification to better serve our
customers around the world. Over the last decade, we have made significant strides in transforming our portfolio and focusing on our
industrial leadership. We have grown our infrastructure platforms with major portfolio moves, investing in adjacencies and pursuing
opportunities that are closely related to our core.
In parallel, we have made a concentrated effort to reduce the size of our GE Capital business and align its growth with Industrial
earnings. As a result, GE Capital vertical businesses are now focused on investing financial, human and intellectual capital to promote
growth for our industrial businesses and their customers. GE Capital accomplishes this in part through related party transactions with
GE that are made on an arms-length basis and are reported in the GE and GE Capital columns of our financial statements, but are
eliminated in deriving our consolidated financial statements. These transactions include, but are not limited to, the following:
In addition to the above transactions that primarily enable growth for the GE businesses, there are routine related party transactions,
which include, but are not limited to, the following:
CASH FLOWS
GE Capital paid $20.1 billion, $4.3 billion and $3.0 billion of common dividends to GE in the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and
2014, respectively. In January 2017, GE received an additional $2.0 billion of common dividends from GE Capital.
In order to manage credit exposure, GE sells current receivables to GE Capital and other third parties in part to fund the growth of our
industrial businesses. These transactions can result in cash generation or cash use. During any given period, GE receives cash from
the sale of receivables to GE Capital and other third parties. GE also leverages GE Capital for its expertise in receivables collection
services and sales of receivables to GE Capital are made on an arm’s length basis. The incremental amount of cash received from
sales of receivables represents the cash generated or used in the period relating to this activity. The incremental cash generated in GE
CFOA from current receivables sold to GE Capital, including current receivables subsequently sold to third parties, increased GE’s
CFOA by $2.1 billion, $2.1 billion and $1.6 billion in 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively.
As of December 31, 2016, GE Capital had approximately $12.3 billion recorded on its balance sheet related to current receivables
purchased from GE. Of these amounts, approximately half had been sold by GE to GE Capital with recourse (i.e., the GE business
retains the risk of default). The evaluation of whether recourse transactions qualify for accounting derecognition is based, in part, upon
the legal jurisdiction of the sale; as such, the majority of recourse transactions outside the U.S. qualify for sale treatment. Claims by GE
Capital on receivables sold with recourse to GE have not been significant for the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014.
In December 2016, GE Capital entered into a Receivables Facility with members of a bank group, designed to provide extra liquidity to
GE. The Receivables Facility allows us to sell eligible current receivables on a non-recourse basis for cash and a deferred purchase
price to members of the bank group. The purchase commitment of the bank group at December 31, 2016 was $3.0 billion. See Note 22
to the consolidated financial statements for further information.
ENABLED ORDERS
Enabled orders represent the act of introducing, elevating and influencing customers and prospects that result in an industrial sale,
potentially coupled with programmatic captive financing or driving incremental products or services across the GE Store. During the
year ended December 31, 2016, GE Capital enabled $13.4 billion of GE industrial orders, primarily with our Power ($6.9 billion),
Renewable Energy ($4.8 billion) and Healthcare ($0.9 billion) businesses.
AVIATION
During the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2015, GE Capital acquired 44 aircraft (list price totaling $6.5 billion) and 56 aircraft (list
price totaling $6.4 billion), respectively, from third parties that will be leased to others, which are powered by engines that were
manufactured by GE Aviation and affiliates. Additionally, GE Capital had $1.5 billion and $1.1 billion of net book value of engines,
originally manufactured by GE Aviation and affiliates and subsequently leased back to GE Aviation and affiliates at December 31, 2016
and 2015, respectively.
PENSIONS
GE Capital is a member of certain GE Pension Plans. As a result of the GE Capital Exit Plan, GE Capital will have additional funding
obligations for these pension plans. These obligations do not relate to the Verticals and are recognized as an expense in GE Capital’s
other continuing operations when they become probable and estimable. The additional funding obligations recognized by GE Capital
were $0.6 billion and $0.2 billion for the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2015, respectively.
Certain of this additional funding is recorded as a contra expense for GE and GE’s related future pension obligations will be paid by GE
Capital. For certain other pension plan funding obligations triggered by the GE Capital Exit Plan, GE agreed to assume the funding
obligation that would have been triggered by GE Capital at the date of exit from the plan in exchange for an assumption fee that GE
recorded as Other income. The total cash transferred to GE for the assumption of these GE Capital funding obligations was $0.2 billion
and $0.1 billion for the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2015, respectively.
On a consolidated basis, the additional required pension funding and any related assumption fees do not affect current period earnings.
Any additional required pension funding will be reflected as a reduction of the pension liability when paid.
In certain instances, GE provides guarantees to GE Capital transactions with third parties primarily in connection with enabled orders.
In order to meet its underwriting criteria, GE Capital may obtain a direct guarantee from GE related to the performance of the third
party. GE guarantees can take many forms and may include, but not be limited to, direct performance or payment guarantees, return on
investment guarantees, asset value guarantees and loss pool arrangements. As of December 31, 2016, GE had outstanding
guarantees to GE Capital on $1.8 billion of funded exposure and $0.5 billion of unfunded commitments. The recorded amount of these
contingent liabilities was $0.1 billion as of December 31, 2016 and is dependent upon individual transaction level defaults, losses and/or
returns.
GE provides implicit and explicit support to GE Capital through commitments, capital contributions and operating support. As previously
discussed, GE debt assumed from GE Capital in connection with the merger of GE Capital into GE was $58.8 billion, and GE
guaranteed $47.5 billion of GE Capital debt at December 31, 2016. See Note 24 to the consolidated financial statements for additional
information about the eliminations of intercompany transactions between GE and GE Capital.
CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATIONS
As defined by reporting regulations, our contractual obligations for estimated future payments as of December 31, 2016, follow.
(a) Included all take-or-pay arrangements, capital expenditures, contractual commitments to purchase equipment that will be leased to others,
software acquisition/license commitments, contractual minimum programming commitments and any contractually required cash payments for
acquisitions.
(b) Excluded funding commitments entered into in the ordinary course of business. See Notes 20 and 23 to the consolidated financial statements
for further information on these commitments and other guarantees.
(c) Included contracts with reasonably determinable cash flows such as structured settlements, guaranteed investment contracts, and certain
property and casualty contracts, and excluded long-term care, variable annuity and other life insurance contracts.
(d) Included an estimate of future expected funding requirements related to our postretirement benefit plans and included liabilities for
unrecognized tax benefits. Because their future cash outflows are uncertain, the following non-current liabilities are excluded from the table
above: derivatives, deferred revenue and other sundry items. See Notes 14, 20 and 29 to the consolidated financial statements for further
information on certain of these items.
(e) Included payments for other liabilities.
Revenue recognition on long-term product services agreements requires estimates of profits over the multiple-year terms of such
agreements, considering factors such as the frequency and extent of future monitoring, maintenance and overhaul events; the amount
of personnel, spare parts and other resources required to perform the services; and future billing rate, cost changes and customers’
utilization of assets. We routinely review estimates under product services agreements and regularly revise them to adjust for changes
in outlook.
We also regularly assess customer credit risk inherent in the carrying amounts of receivables and contract costs and estimated
earnings, including the risk that contractual penalties may not be sufficient to offset our accumulated investment in the event of
customer termination. We gain insight into future utilization and cost trends, as well as credit risk, through our knowledge of the installed
base of equipment and the close interaction with our customers that comes with supplying critical services and parts over extended
periods. Revisions may affect a product services agreement’s total estimated profitability resulting in an adjustment of earnings; such
adjustments increased earnings by $2.2 billion, $1.4 billion and $1.0 billion in 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively. We provide for
probable losses when they become evident.
See Notes 1 and 9 to the consolidated financial statements for further information.
ASSET IMPAIRMENT
Asset impairment assessment involves various estimates and assumptions as follows:
INVESTMENTS
We regularly review investment securities for impairment using both quantitative and qualitative criteria. For debt securities, if we do not
intend to sell the security and it is not more likely than not that we will be required to sell the security before recovery of our amortized
cost, we evaluate other qualitative criteria to determine whether a credit loss exists, such as the financial health of and specific
prospects for the issuer, including whether the issuer is in compliance with the terms and covenants of the security. Quantitative criteria
include determining whether there has been an adverse change in expected future cash flows. For equity securities, our criteria include
the length of time and magnitude of the amount that each security is in an unrealized loss position. Our other-than-temporary
impairment reviews involve our finance, risk and asset management functions as well as the portfolio management and research
capabilities of our internal and third-party asset managers. See Note 1 to the consolidated financial statements, which discusses the
determination of fair value of investment securities.
See Notes 1 and 3 to the consolidated financial statements for further information about actual and potential impairment losses.
LONG-LIVED ASSETS
We review long-lived assets for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the related carrying amounts
may not be recoverable. Determining whether an impairment has occurred typically requires various estimates and assumptions,
including determining which undiscounted cash flows are directly related to the potentially impaired asset, the useful life over which
cash flows will occur, their amount, and the asset’s residual value, if any. In turn, measurement of an impairment loss requires a
determination of fair value, which is based on the best information available. We derive the required undiscounted cash flow estimates
from our historical experience and our internal business plans. To determine fair value, we use quoted market prices when available,
our internal cash flow estimates discounted at an appropriate discount rate and independent appraisals, as appropriate.
Our operating lease portfolio of commercial aircraft is a significant concentration of assets in Capital, and is particularly subject to
market fluctuations. Therefore, we test recoverability of each aircraft in our operating lease portfolio at least annually. Additionally, we
perform quarterly evaluations in circumstances such as when aircraft are re-leased, current lease terms have changed or a specific
lessee’s credit standing changes. We consider market conditions, such as global demand for commercial aircraft. Estimates of future
rentals and residual values are based on historical experience and information received routinely from independent appraisers.
Estimated cash flows from future leases are reduced for expected downtime between leases and for estimated costs required to
prepare aircraft to be redeployed. Fair value used to measure impairment is based on management's best estimates which are
benchmarked against third-party appraiser current market values for aircraft of similar type and age.
See Notes 7 and 23 to the consolidated financial statements for further information on impairment losses and our exposure to the
commercial aviation industry.
Valuations using the market approach are derived from metrics of publicly traded companies or historically completed transactions of
comparable businesses. The selection of comparable businesses is based on the markets in which the reporting units operate giving
consideration to risk profiles, size, geography, and diversity of products and services. A market approach is limited to reporting units for
which there are publicly traded companies that have the characteristics similar to our businesses.
Under the income approach, fair value is determined based on the present value of estimated future cash flows, discounted at an
appropriate risk-adjusted rate. We use our internal forecasts to estimate future cash flows and include an estimate of long-term future
growth rates based on our most recent views of the long-term outlook for each business. Actual results may differ from those assumed
in our forecasts. We derive our discount rates using a capital asset pricing model and analyzing published rates for industries relevant
to our reporting units to estimate the cost of equity financing. We use discount rates that are commensurate with the risks and
uncertainty inherent in the respective businesses and in our internally developed forecasts. Discount rates used in our reporting unit
valuations ranged from 9.5% to 16.5%.
Estimating the fair value of reporting units requires the use of estimates and significant judgments that are based on a number of
factors including actual operating results. It is reasonably possible that the judgments and estimates described above could change in
future periods.
During the third quarter of 2016, we performed our annual impairment test of goodwill for all of our reporting units. Based on the results
of our step one testing, the fair values of each of the GE reporting units exceeded their carrying values; therefore, the second step of
the impairment test was not required to be performed for any of our reporting units and no goodwill impairment was recognized.
We review identified intangible assets with defined useful lives and subject to amortization for impairment whenever events or changes
in circumstances indicate that the related carrying amounts may not be recoverable. Determining whether an impairment loss occurred
requires comparing the carrying amount to the sum of undiscounted cash flows expected to be generated by the asset. We test
intangible assets with indefinite lives annually for impairment using a fair value method such as discounted cash flows. For our
insurance activities remaining in continuing operations, we periodically test for impairment our deferred acquisition costs and present
value of future profits.
See Notes 1 and 8 to the consolidated financial statements for further information.
The determination of fair value for businesses and assets held for sale involves significant judgments and assumptions. Development of
estimates of fair values in this circumstance is complex and is dependent upon, among other factors, the nature of the potential sales
transaction (for example, asset sale versus sale of legal entity), composition of assets and/or businesses in the disposal group, the
comparability of the disposal group to market transactions, negotiations with third party purchasers, etc. Such factors bear directly on
the range of potential fair values and the selection of the best estimates. Key assumptions were developed based on market observable
data and, in the absence of such data, internal information that is consistent with what market participants would use in a hypothetical
transaction.
We review all businesses and assets held for sale each reporting period to determine whether the existing carrying amounts are fully
recoverable in comparison to estimated fair values.
PENSION ASSUMPTIONS
Pension assumptions are significant inputs to the actuarial models that measure pension benefit obligations and related effects on
operations. Two assumptions – discount rate and expected return on assets – are important elements of plan expense and
asset/liability measurement. We evaluate these critical assumptions at least annually on a plan and country-specific basis. We
periodically evaluate other assumptions involving demographic factors such as retirement age, mortality and turnover, and update them
to reflect our experience and expectations for the future. Actual results in any given year will often differ from actuarial assumptions
because of economic and other factors.
Projected benefit obligations are measured as the present value of expected payments. We discount those cash payments using the
weighted average of market-observed yields for high-quality fixed-income securities with maturities that correspond to the payment of
benefits. Lower discount rates increase present values and subsequent-year pension expense; higher discount rates decrease present
values and subsequent-year pension expense.
Our discount rates for principal pension plans at December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014 were 4.11%, 4.38% and 4.02%, respectively,
reflecting market interest rates.
To determine the expected long-term rate of return on pension plan assets, we consider current and target asset allocations, as well as
historical and expected returns on various categories of plan assets. In developing future long-term return expectations for our principal
benefit plans’ assets, we formulate views on the future economic environment, both in the U.S. and abroad. We evaluate general
market trends and historical relationships among a number of key variables that impact asset class returns such as expected earnings
growth, inflation, valuations, yields and spreads, using both internal and external sources. We also take into account expected volatility
by asset class and diversification across classes to determine expected overall portfolio results given current and target allocations.
Assets in our principal pension plans earned 6.5% in 2016, and had average annual returns of 7.8%, 4.0%, and 8.0% per year in the 5-,
10- and 25-year periods ended December 31, 2016, respectively. The average historical 10- and 25- year returns were significantly
affected by investment losses in 2008. Based on our analysis of future expectations of asset performance, past return results, and our
current and target asset allocations, we have assumed a 7.5% long-term expected return on those assets for cost recognition in 2017
the same as 2016 and 2015.
Changes in key assumptions for our principal pension plans would have the following effects.
x Discount rate – A 25 basis point increase in discount rate would decrease pension cost in the following year by $0.2 billion and
would decrease the pension benefit obligation at year-end by about $2.2 billion.
x Expected return on assets – A 50 basis point decrease in the expected return on assets would increase pension cost in the
following year by $0.2 billion.
See Other Consolidated Information – Postretirement Benefit Plans section within the MD&A and Notes 12 and 29 to the consolidated
financial statements for further information on our pension plans.
INCOME TAXES
Our annual tax rate is based on our income, statutory tax rates and tax planning opportunities available to us in the various jurisdictions
in which we operate. Tax laws are complex and subject to different interpretations by the taxpayer and respective governmental taxing
authorities. Significant judgment is required in determining our tax expense and in evaluating our tax positions, including evaluating
uncertainties. We review our tax positions quarterly and adjust the balances as new information becomes available. Our income tax
rate is significantly affected by the tax rate on our global operations. In addition to local country tax laws and regulations, this rate
depends on the extent earnings are indefinitely reinvested outside the United States. Indefinite reinvestment is determined by
management’s judgment about and intentions concerning the future operations of the Company. At December 31, 2016 and 2015,
approximately $82 billion and $104 billion of earnings, respectively, have been indefinitely reinvested outside the United States. Most of
these earnings have been reinvested in active non-U.S. business operations, and we do not intend to repatriate these earnings to fund
U.S. operations. Because of the availability of U.S. foreign tax credits, it is not practicable to determine the U.S. federal income tax
liability that would be payable if such earnings were not reinvested indefinitely outside the United States.
Deferred income tax assets represent amounts available to reduce income taxes payable on taxable income in future years. Such
assets arise because of temporary differences between the financial reporting and tax bases of assets and liabilities, as well as from
net operating loss and tax credit carryforwards. We evaluate the recoverability of these future tax deductions and credits by assessing
the adequacy of future expected taxable income from all sources, including reversal of taxable temporary differences, forecasted
operating earnings and available tax planning strategies. These sources of income rely heavily on estimates. We use our historical
experience and our short- and long-range business forecasts to provide insight. Further, our global and diversified business portfolio
gives us the opportunity to employ various prudent and feasible tax planning strategies to facilitate the recoverability of future
deductions. Amounts recorded for deferred tax assets related to non-U.S. net operating losses, net of valuation allowances, were $3.1
billion and $5.1 billion at December 31, 2016 and 2015, including $0.3 billion and $0.8 billion at December 31, 2016 and 2015,
respectively, of deferred tax assets, net of valuation allowances, associated with losses reported in discontinued operations, primarily
related to our Real Estate and Consumer businesses and our loss on the sale of GE Money Japan. Such year-end 2016 amounts are
expected to be fully recoverable within the applicable statutory expiration periods. To the extent we do not consider it more likely than
not that a deferred tax asset will be recovered, a valuation allowance is established.
See Other Consolidated Information – Income Taxes section within the MD&A and Note 14 to the consolidated financial statements for
further information on income taxes.
We use derivatives to manage a variety of risks, including risks related to interest rates, foreign exchange and commodity prices.
Accounting for derivatives as hedges requires that, at inception and over the term of the arrangement, the hedged item and related
derivative meet the requirements for hedge accounting. The rules and interpretations related to derivatives accounting are complex.
Failure to apply this complex guidance correctly will result in all changes in the fair value of the derivative being reported in earnings,
without regard to the offsetting changes in the fair value of the hedged item.
In evaluating whether a particular relationship qualifies for hedge accounting, we test effectiveness at inception and each reporting
period thereafter by determining whether changes in the fair value of the derivative offset, within a specified range, changes in the fair
value of the hedged item. If fair value changes fail this test, we discontinue applying hedge accounting to that relationship prospectively.
Fair values of both the derivative instrument and the hedged item are calculated using internal valuation models incorporating market-
based assumptions, subject to third-party confirmation, as applicable.
See Notes 1, 9, 20 and 29 to the consolidated financial statements for further information about our use of derivatives.
A fair value measurement is determined as the price we would receive to sell an asset or pay to transfer a liability in an orderly
transaction between market participants at the measurement date. In the absence of active markets for the identical assets or liabilities,
such measurements involve developing assumptions based on market observable data and, in the absence of such data, internal
information that is consistent with what market participants would use in a hypothetical transaction that occurs at the measurement
date. The determination of fair value often involves significant judgments about assumptions such as determining an appropriate
discount rate that factors in both risk and liquidity premiums, identifying the similarities and differences in market transactions, weighting
those differences accordingly and then making the appropriate adjustments to those market transactions to reflect the risks specific to
our asset being valued.
See Notes 1, 3, 8, 19, 20 and 29 to the consolidated financial statements for further information on fair value measurements and related
matters.
When a loss is considered probable and reasonably estimable, we record a liability in the amount of our best estimate for the ultimate
loss. When there appears to be a range of possible costs with equal likelihood, liabilities are based on the low-end of such range.
However, the likelihood of a loss with respect to a particular contingency is often difficult to predict and determining a meaningful
estimate of the loss or a range of loss may not be practicable based on the information available and the potential effect of future
events and decisions by third parties that will determine the ultimate resolution of the contingency. Moreover, it is not uncommon for
such matters to be resolved over many years, during which time relevant developments and new information must be continuously
evaluated to determine both the likelihood of potential loss and whether it is possible to reasonably estimate a range of possible loss.
When a loss is probable but a reasonable estimate cannot be made, disclosure is provided.
Disclosure also is provided when it is reasonably possible that a loss will be incurred or when it is reasonably possible that the amount
of a loss will exceed the recorded provision. We regularly review all contingencies to determine whether the likelihood of loss has
changed and to assess whether a reasonable estimate of the loss or range of loss can be made. As discussed above, development of a
meaningful estimate of loss or a range of potential loss is complex when the outcome is directly dependent on negotiations with or
decisions by third parties, such as regulatory agencies, the court system and other interested parties. Such factors bear directly on
whether it is possible to reasonably estimate a range of potential loss and boundaries of high and low estimates.
OTHER ITEMS
NEW ACCOUNTING STANDARDS
ASU NO. 2016-16, ACCOUNTING FOR INCOME TAXES: INTRA-ENTITY ASSET TRANSFERS OF ASSETS OTHER
THAN INVENTORY
In October 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued Accounting Standards Update (ASU) No. 2016-16,
Accounting for Income Taxes: Intra-Entity Asset Transfers of Assets Other than Inventory. The ASU eliminates the deferral of the tax
effects of intra-entity asset transfers other than inventory. As a result, the tax expense from the intercompany sale of assets, other than
inventory, and associated changes to deferred taxes will be recognized when the sale occurs even though the pre-tax effects of the
transaction have not been recognized. The effect of the adoption of the standard will depend on the nature and amount of future
transactions.
In February 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-02, Leases. The new standard establishes a right-of-use (ROU) model that requires
a lessee to record a ROU asset and a lease liability on the balance sheet for all leases with terms longer than 12 months. Leases will
be classified as either finance or operating, with classification affecting the pattern of expense recognition. Similarly, lessors will be
required to classify leases as sales-type, finance or operating, with classification affecting the pattern of income recognition.
Classification for both lessees and lessors will be based on an assessment of whether risks and rewards as well as substantive control
have been transferred through a lease contract. The new standard is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2018,
including interim periods within those fiscal years, with early adoption permitted. A modified retrospective transition approach is required
for leases existing at, or entered into after, the beginning of the earliest comparative period presented in the financial statements, with
certain practical expedients available. While we continue to evaluate the effect of the standard on our ongoing financial reporting, we
anticipate that the adoption of the ASU may materially affect our Statement of Financial Position.
BACKGROUND
In May 2014, the FASB issued a new comprehensive set of revenue recognition principles (ASU No. 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts
with Customers) that supersedes most existing U.S. GAAP revenue recognition guidance (including ASC 605-35, Revenue Recognition
- Construction-Type and Production-Type Contracts). The new standard will become effective for annual reporting periods beginning
after December 15, 2017. We will adopt the standard on January 1, 2018, will apply it retrospectively to all periods presented and will
elect the practical expedient for contract modifications. Since the issuance of the new standard by the FASB, we have engaged in a
collaborative process with our industry peers and worked with standard setters on important interpretive matters with the objective of
ensuring consistency in the application of the standard.
Companies can use either a full retrospective or modified retrospective method to adopt the standard. Under the full retrospective
method, all periods presented will be updated upon adoption to conform to the new standard and a cumulative adjustment for effects on
periods prior to 2016 will be recorded to retained earnings as of January 1, 2016. Under the modified retrospective approach, prior
periods are not updated to be presented on an accounting basis that is consistent with 2018. Rather, a cumulative adjustment for
effects of applying the new standard to periods prior to 2018 is recorded to retained earnings as of January 1, 2018. Because only 2018
revenues reflect application of the new standard, incremental disclosures are required to present the 2018 revenues under the prior
standard.
As noted above, we have elected to apply the full retrospective approach. We chose that approach because we believe that it is the
most helpful to our investors. First and foremost, when we adopt the standard in 2018 we will provide investors with a consistent view
of historical trends, as 2016 and 2017 will be on a basis consistent with 2018.
The new standard requires companies to identify contractual performance obligations and determine whether revenue should be
recognized at a point in time or over time based on when control of goods and services transfer to a customer. As a result, we expect
significant changes in the presentation of our financial statements, including: (1) timing of revenue recognition, and (2) changes in
classification between revenue and costs. The new standard will have no cash impact and, as such, does not affect the economics of
our underlying customer contracts. The effect of applying the new guidance to our existing book of contracts will result in lower reported
earnings in 2018 (and comparative periods previously reported) and in the early years after adoption. However, we expect to
experience an increase in reported earnings, on that existing book of contracts, as they mature. The new standard will provide for a
better alignment of cash and earnings for the affected long-term customer contracts and we expect that it will enhance comparability
across industry peers.
Power and Aviation Service Agreements - For our long-term product service agreements, primarily in our Power and Aviation
businesses, we expect to continue to recognize revenue based on costs incurred plus an estimated margin rate (over time model).
However, the new standard provides prescriptive guidance tied to several factors for determining what constitutes the proper scope of a
customer contract for accounting purposes. These factors include optional purchases, contract modifications, and termination clauses.
For example, under the new standard contract modifications will be accounted for prospectively by recognizing the financial effect of the
modification over the remaining life of the contract. Under existing accounting guidance revisions to estimated margin rates resulting
from modifications were reflected as cumulative effect adjustments to earnings in the current period.
Aviation Commercial Engines - Consistent with industry peers, the financial presentation of our Aviation Commercial engines
business will be significantly affected as they will be accounted for as of a point in time, which is a change from our current long-term
contract accounting process. Our current process applies contract-specific estimated margin rates, which include the effect of estimated
cost improvements, to costs incurred. This change is required because our commercial engine contracts do not transfer control to the
customer during the manufacturing process. Each install and spare engine will be accounted for as a separate performance obligation,
reflecting the actual price and manufacturing costs of such engines. We expect that the most significant effect of this change will be
reflected when we have new engine launches, where the cost of earlier production units is higher than the cost of later production units
because of cost improvements.
All Other Large Equipment - For the remainder of our equipment businesses, the new revenue standard requires emphasis on
transfer of control rather than risks and rewards, which may accelerate timing of revenue recognition versus our current practices. For
example, in our Renewable Energy business we wait for risk of loss to be assumed by the customer before recognizing revenue, which
generally occurs later than when control is transferred.
We will adopt the new standard as of January 1, 2018. When we report our 2018 results, the comparative results for 2017 and 2016 will
be updated to reflect the application of the requirements of the new standard to these periods. Based on our assessment and best
estimates to date, we expect a non-cash charge to our January 1, 2016 retained earnings balance of approximately $4 billion. We
estimate that the charge will comprise approximately $1 billion related to commercial aircraft engines and $3 billion related primarily to
our Services businesses (predominately in Power and Aviation). Beyond those effects, we expect application of the new guidance will
result in increases and decreases in revenue within our segments, which will largely offset overall and will be immaterial at a total
company level. We estimate that our 2016 restated earnings per share will be lower by approximately $0.10. We anticipate that 2018
earnings per share will be lower by approximately $0.05 compared to what our results would be under existing revenue recognition
guidance. These amounts include significant estimates and will remain subject to change as we complete our evaluation of the new
standard and reflect actual activity for 2017.
To summarize, we will adopt the new standard in 2018, at which time we will update prior periods to be presented on a consistent
basis. As discussed above, we anticipate the dilutive effect of the new standard in the year of adoption to be approximately $0.05 EPS
and the effect will be less dilutive for years after initial adoption. However, this expectation is based on many variables, which are
subject to change. Importantly, application of the new guidance has no effect on the cash we expect to receive nor the economics of
these contracts. Rather, it will simply more closely align revenue with cash, which we believe will be helpful to our investors.
GE DIGITAL
In late 2015, we created GE Digital, whose activities are focused on assisting in the market development of our digital product offerings
through software design, fulfillment and product management, while also interfacing with our customers. Digital revenues include
internally developed software (including Predix) and associated hardware, and software solutions that improve our customers’ asset
performance. These revenues are largely generated from our operating businesses and are included in their segment results.
GE Digital revenues of $3.6 billion increased $0.5 billion, or 16%, in 2016 and were principally driven by expansion of our Digital
offerings in GE’s Power, Energy Connections & Lighting and Oil & Gas segments.
GE Digital orders of $4.0 billion increased $0.7 billion, or 22%, in 2016 principally driven by expansion of our Digital offerings in GE’s
Power, Energy Connections & Lighting, Oil & Gas segments and in Digital Core, partially offset by a market-driven slowdown in
Transportation.
One aspect of our Digital transformation includes an initiative to digitize the operations of GE. These investments include applications
and analytics that improve the productivity of our internal processes across engineering, services, sourcing, and commercial –
collectively referred to as the Digital Thread. During 2016, we internally invested $0.4 billion through various digitally-driven productivity
initiatives, yielding $0.7 billion of gross productivity, principally related to our services businesses. Costs associated with revenue-
generating activities are recorded within the results of our segments and at Corporate and are reflected in their respective margin rates.
In addition, we made several acquisitions to further enhance and expand our digital capabilities:
x On January 10, 2017, we completed the acquisition of ServiceMax, a leader in cloud-based field service management (FSM)
solutions, for $0.9 billion. This acquisition is expected to provide enhanced capabilities to advance our Industrial Internet
vision, enabling customers to immediately gain more value from their assets and find greater efficiency in their field service
processes.
x On November 9, 2016, we acquired the remaining 89% of Bit Stew, a software company specializing in gathering data from
connected devices in complex industrial systems to help companies plan predictive maintenance and optimize productivity, for
$0.1 billion.
x On October 26, 2016, we acquired Wise.io, a leading machine learning and intelligent systems company, for less than $0.1
billion. This acquisition is expected to further accelerate development of advanced machine learning and data science
offerings in the Predix platform.
x On September 14, 2016, we acquired the remaining 74% of the software developer Meridium Inc. for $0.4 billion. The
acquisition is expected to enhance and accelerate our Asset Performance Management capabilities across our industrial
businesses.
The Company is making the following disclosure pursuant to Section 13(r) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
Under Section 13(r) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, enacted in 2012, GE is required to disclose in its periodic reports if it or any
of its affiliates knowingly engaged in business activities relating to Iran, even if those activities are conducted in accordance with
authorizations subsequently issued by the U.S. Government. Reportable activities include investments that significantly enhance Iran’s
ability to develop petroleum resources valued at $20 million or more in the aggregate during a twelve-month period. Reporting is also
required for transactions related to Iran’s domestic production of refined petroleum products or Iran’s ability to import refined petroleum
products valued at $5 million or more in the aggregate during a twelve-month period.
In January 2016, the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued General License H authorizing
U.S.-owned or controlled foreign entities to engage in transactions with Iran if these entities meet the requirements of the general
license. Pursuant to this authorization, a non-U.S. affiliate of GE’s Power business received a purchase order during the third quarter of
2016 for the sale of spare parts to an Iranian entity to provide electricity and steam to an area of Iran that includes certain oil refineries.
During the fourth quarter of 2016, the non-U.S. affiliate received purchase orders directly from one of the end users for €7.1 million
($7.9 million) of the work contemplated under the original purchase order. As a result, the original purchase order will be revised. As of
December 31, 2016, gross revenues attributable to these purchase orders was €0.9 million ($1.0 million), and net profits attributable to
these transactions was €0.5 million ($0.6 million). The non-U.S. affiliate intends to continue this activity.
Another non-U.S. affiliate of GE’s Oil & Gas business received four purchase orders during the fourth quarter of 2016 for the sale of
goods pursuant to General License H that could potentially enhance Iran’s ability to develop petroleum resources. The purchase orders
cover the sale of spare parts for gas turbine equipment for ultimate end use by an Iranian company in gas production projects in Iran
and have a total value of €16.8 million ($17.6 million). The non-U.S. affiliate has also begun operational activities related to previously
reported contracts. A second non-U.S. affiliate of GE’s Oil & Gas business received a purchase order pursuant to General License H
valued at €0.2 million ($0.2 million) during the fourth quarter of 2016 for the sale of services associated with the commissioning of gas
compressors in Iran. As of December 31, 2016, these non-U.S. affiliates have not recognized any revenue, but have incurred €2.7
million ($2.9 million) in costs. The non-U.S. affiliates intend to continue this activity.
For additional information on business activities related to Iran, please refer to the Other Items section within MD&A of our Form 10-Q
for the quarter ended September 30, 2016.
ENVIRONMENTAL MATTERS
Our operations, like operations of other companies engaged in similar businesses, involve the use, disposal and cleanup of substances
regulated under environmental protection laws. We are involved in a number of remediation actions to clean up hazardous wastes as
required by federal and state laws. Such statutes require that responsible parties fund remediation actions regardless of fault, legality of
original disposal or ownership of a disposal site. Expenditures for site remediation actions amounted to approximately $0.2 billion, $0.3
billion and $0.4 billion for the years 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively. We presently expect that such remediation actions will require
average annual expenditures of about $0.2 billion in 2017 and about $0.1 billion in 2018.
As previously reported, in 2000, GE and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) entered into a consent decree relating to PCB
cleanup of the Housatonic River in Massachusetts. Following EPA’s release in September 2015 of an intended final remediation
decision, GE and EPA engaged in mediation and the first step of the dispute resolution process contemplated by the consent decree. In
October 2016, EPA issued its final remediation decision pursuant to the consent decree. GE and several other interested parties have
appealed that decision to EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board. A decision of the Board can ultimately be appealed to the United States
Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. EPA may not implement any remedy until all appeals are exhausted. As of December 31, 2016,
and based on its assessment of current facts and circumstances and its defenses, GE believes that it has recorded adequate reserves
to cover future obligations associated with an expected final remedy.
Of the total Research and Development, the segments with the most significant expenditures for the years ended December 31, 2016,
2015 and 2014 were: Aviation $1,595 million, $1,893 million and $1,965 million, respectively; Healthcare $938 million, $905 million, and
$817 million, respectively; and Power $695 million, $721 million and $641 million, respectively. The remaining segments and Corporate,
including Global Research Center, had combined expenditures of $2,238 million, $1,759 million and $1,850 million, for the years ended
December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014 respectively.
OTHER
We own, or hold licenses to use, numerous patents. New patents are continuously being obtained through our research and
development activities as existing patents expire. Patented inventions are used both within the Company and are licensed to others.
Because of the diversity of our products and services, as well as the wide geographic dispersion of our production facilities, we use
numerous sources for the wide variety of raw materials needed for our operations. We have not been adversely affected by our inability
to obtain raw materials.
Sales of goods and services to agencies of the U.S. Government as a percentage of revenues follow.
SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION
FINANCIAL MEASURES THAT SUPPLEMENT U.S. GENERALLY ACCEPTED ACCOUNTING
PRINCIPLES MEASURES (NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES)
We sometimes use information derived from consolidated financial information but not presented in our financial statements prepared in
accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). Certain of these data are considered “non-GAAP financial
measures” under U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rules. Specifically, we have referred, in various sections of this report, to:
x Industrial segment organic revenues and industrial segment organic revenues excluding Oil & Gas
x Industrial segment organic operating profit
x Oil & Gas organic revenue and operating profit growth
x Operating and non-operating pension cost
x Adjusted corporate costs (operating)
x GE pre-tax earnings from continuing operations, excluding GE Capital earnings (loss) from continuing operations and the
corresponding effective tax rates, and the reconciliation of the U.S. federal statutory income tax rate to GE effective tax rate,
excluding GE Capital earnings
x Industrial operating earnings and GE Capital earnings (loss) from continuing operations and EPS
x Industrial operating + Verticals earnings and EPS
x Industrial operating profit and operating profit margin (excluding certain items)
x Industrial operating profit + Verticals
x Industrial segment gross margin (excluding Alstom)
x Industrial segment operating profit and operating margin (excluding Alstom)
x Average GE shareowners’ equity, excluding effects of discontinued operations
x Average GE Capital shareowners’ equity, excluding effects of discontinued operations
x Industrial return on total capital (Industrial ROTC)
x Industrial cash flows from operating activities (Industrial CFOA) and Industrial CFOA excluding taxes related to business sales and
principal pension plan funding
x GE cash flows from operating activities (GE CFOA) excluding taxes related to business sales and principal pension plan funding
x Free cash flow (FCF) and FCF plus dispositions
x Ratio of adjusted debt to equity at GE Capital, net of liquidity
x Capital ending net investment (ENI), excluding liquidity
x 2017 operating framework including 2017 Industrial operating + Verticals EPS target
The reasons we use these non-GAAP financial measures and the reconciliations to their most directly comparable GAAP financial
measures follow.
INDUSTRIAL SEGMENT ORGANIC REVENUES AND INDUSTRIAL SEGMENT ORGANIC REVENUES EXCLUDING OIL & GAS
(a) Alstom was acquired in November 2015. This adjustment results in the inclusion of Alstom revenues from November and December of both
2015 and 2016 in the adjusted organic revenue growth measure as described below.
Organic revenue growth measures revenue growth excluding the effects of acquisitions, business dispositions and currency exchange
rates. We believe that this measure provides management and investors with a more complete understanding of underlying operating
results and trends of established, ongoing operations by excluding the effect of acquisitions, dispositions and currency exchange, which
activities are subject to volatility and can obscure underlying trends. We also believe that presenting organic revenue growth separately
for our industrial businesses provides management and investors with useful information about the trends of our industrial businesses
and enables a more direct comparison to other non-financial businesses and companies. Management recognizes that the term
"organic revenue growth" may be interpreted differently by other companies and under different circumstances. Although this may have
an effect on comparability of absolute percentage growth from company to company, we believe that these measures are useful in
assessing trends of the respective businesses or companies and may therefore be a useful tool in assessing period-to-period
performance trends.
We integrate acquisitions as soon as possible. Revenues from the date we complete the acquisition through the end of the fourth
quarter following the acquisition are considered the acquisition effect of such business for purposes of calculating organic revenue. As
such, organic revenue excludes Alstom revenues from November 3, 2015 through December 31, 2016. However, because of the
significance of Alstom to our results and the exclusion of Alstom revenues for more than 12 months in calculating organic revenue
growth, we believe investors would also find it helpful to see the revenue growth of the industrial segments adjusted to include Alstom's
November and December revenues in an organic measure. As a result, we have also presented an adjusted organic revenue growth
measure on that basis.
We also believe that variability in the revenue of our Oil & Gas business may obscure underlying trends of our other industrial
businesses. As a result, we have also presented our organic revenue growth measure excluding the revenues of our Oil & Gas
business.
Industrial segment organic operating profit growth measures Industrial segment profit excluding the effects of acquisitions, business
dispositions and currency exchange rates. We believe that this measure provides management and investors with a more complete
understanding of underlying operating results and trends of established, ongoing operations by excluding the effect of acquisitions,
dispositions and currency exchange, which activities are subject to volatility and can obscure underlying trends. We also believe that
presenting industrial segment organic operating profit growth separately for our industrial businesses provides management and
investors with useful information about the trends of our industrial businesses and enables a more direct comparison to other non-
financial businesses and companies. Management recognizes that the term "Industrial segment organic operating profit growth" may be
interpreted differently by other companies and under different circumstances. Although this may have an effect on comparability of
absolute percentage growth from company to company, we believe that these measures are useful in assessing trends of the
respective businesses or companies and may therefore be a useful tool in assessing period-to-period performance trends.
Organic revenue and operating profit growth measure revenue and profit excluding the effects of acquisitions, business dispositions
and currency exchange rates. We believe that these measures provide management and investors with a more complete
understanding of underlying operating results and trends of established, ongoing operations by excluding the effect of acquisitions,
dispositions and currency exchange, which activities are subject to volatility and can obscure underlying trends. Management
recognizes that the terms "organic revenue growth" and “organic operating profit growth” may be interpreted differently by other
companies and under different circumstances. Although this may have an effect on comparability of absolute percentage growth from
company to company, we believe that these measures are useful in assessing trends of the Oil & Gas business and may therefore be a
useful tool in assessing period-to-period performance trends.
We have provided the operating and non-operating components of cost for our principal pension plans. Operating pension cost
comprises the service cost of benefits earned, prior service cost amortization and curtailment loss for our principal pension plans. Non-
operating pension cost comprises the expected return on plan assets, interest cost on benefit obligations and net actuarial loss
amortization for our principal pension plans. We believe that the operating components of pension cost better reflect the ongoing
service-related cost of providing pension benefits to our employees. We believe that the operating and non-operating components of
cost for our principal pension plans, considered along with the corresponding GAAP measure, provide management and investors with
additional information for comparison of our pension plan cost and operating results with the pension plan cost and operating results of
other companies.
Operating corporate costs exclude non-service-related pension costs of our principal pension plans, which comprise interest costs,
expected return on plan assets and amortization of actuarial gains/losses. Service cost, prior service cost and curtailment loss
components of our principal pension plans are included in operating corporate costs. We believe that these components of pension cost
better reflect the ongoing service-related costs of providing pension benefits to our employees. Accordingly, we believe that our
measure of operating corporate costs provides management and investors with a useful measure of the operational costs incurred
outside of our businesses. We believe that this measure, considered along with the corresponding GAAP measure, provides
management and investors with additional information for comparison of our operating corporate costs to the operating corporate costs
of other companies.
We also believe that adjusting operating corporate costs to exclude the effects of items that are not closely associated with ongoing
corporate operations, such as earnings of previously divested businesses, gains and losses on disposed and held for sale businesses,
restructuring and other charges, a settlement and NBCU LLC provides management and investors with a meaningful measure that
increases the period-to-period comparability of our ongoing corporate costs.
GE PRE-TAX EARNINGS FROM CONTINUING OPERATIONS, EXCLUDING GE CAPITAL EARNINGS (LOSS) FROM
CONTINUING OPERATIONS AND THE CORRESPONDING EFFECTIVE TAX RATES
GE earnings from continuing operations before income taxes (GAAP) $ 9,815 $ 3,252 $ 11,119
Less: GE Capital earnings (loss) from continuing operations (1,251) (7,672) 1,532
Total $ 11,066 $ 10,924 $ 9,587
RECONCILIATION OF U.S. FEDERAL STATUTORY INCOME TAX RATE TO GE EFFECTIVE TAX RATE,
EXCLUDING GE CAPITAL EARNINGS
2016 2015 2014
We believe that the GE effective tax rate is best analyzed in relation to GE earnings before income taxes excluding the GE Capital net
earnings from continuing operations, as GE tax expense does not include taxes on GE Capital earnings. Management believes that in
addition to the Consolidated and GE Capital tax rates shown in Note 14 to the consolidated financial statements, this supplemental
measure provides investors with useful information as it presents the GE effective tax rate that can be used in comparing the GE results
to other non-financial services businesses.
INDUSTRIAL OPERATING EARNINGS AND GE CAPITAL EARNINGS (LOSS) FROM CONTINUING OPERATIONS AND EPS
(Dollars in millions; except per share amounts) 2016 2015 2014 2013
(a) The tax effect of non-operating pension costs was calculated using a 35% U.S. federal statutory tax rate, based on its applicability to such
cost.
(b) Earnings-per-share amounts are computed independently. As a result, the sum of per-share amounts may not equal the total.
Operating earnings excludes non-service-related pension costs of our principal pension plans comprising interest cost, expected return
on plan assets and amortization of actuarial gains/losses. The service cost, prior service cost and curtailment loss components of our
principal pension plans are included in operating earnings. We believe that these components of pension cost better reflect the ongoing
service-related costs of providing pension benefits to our employees. As such, we believe that our measure of operating earnings
provides management and investors with a useful measure of the operational results of our business. Other components of GAAP
pension cost are mainly driven by capital allocation decisions and market performance, and we manage these separately from the
operational performance of our businesses. Neither GAAP nor operating pension costs are necessarily indicative of the current or future
cash flow requirements related to our pension plans. We also believe that this measure, considered along with the corresponding
GAAP measure, provides management and investors with additional information for comparison of our operating results to the
operating results of other companies. We believe that presenting operating earnings separately for our industrial businesses also
provides management and investors with useful information about the relative size of our industrial and financial services businesses in
relation to the total company.
(a) Verticals include businesses expected to be retained (GECAS, Energy Financial Services, Industrial Finance and run-off insurance activities),
including allocated corporate costs of $100 million, $133 million, $233 million and $233 million after tax for the years ended December 31,
2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013, respectively.
(b) Earnings-per-share amounts are computed independently. As a result, the sum of per-share amounts may not equal the total.
As described above, Verticals represents the GE Capital businesses that we expect to retain. We believe that presenting Industrial
operating + Verticals earnings-per-share amounts provides management and investors with a useful measure to evaluate the
performance of the businesses we expect to retain after the disposition of most of our financial services business.
See below for a graphic presentation of the reconciliation between GAAP EPS from continuing operations to the Industrial operating +
Verticals EPS.
Industrial
Industrial
operating &
operating &
Verticals
Verticals
$1.49
$1.31
Non-operating
Non-operating
pension &
pension &
other Capital
other Capital
$(0.49)
$(1.14)
Industrial
Industrial
operating &
operating &
Verticals
Verticals
$1.12
$1.00
Non-operating
Non-operating
pension &
pension &
other Capital
other Capital
$(0.18)
$(0.27)
(a) Earnings-per-share amounts are computed independently. As a result, the sum of per share amounts may not equal the total.
INDUSTRIAL OPERATING PROFIT AND OPERATING PROFIT MARGIN (EXCLUDING CERTAIN ITEMS)
Costs
GE total costs and expenses $ 103,860 $ 97,447 $ 98,427 $ 95,068 $ 94,081
Less: GE interest and other financial charges 2,026 1,706 1,579 1,333 1,353
Industrial costs excluding interest and other
financial charges (GAAP) $ 101,834 $ 95,741 $ 96,848 $ 93,735 $ 92,728
Industrial operating profit ex. Alstom (Non-GAAP) $ 14,786 $ 16,013 $ 15,356 $ 12,859 $ 11,830
Industrial operating profit margins ex. Alstom (Non-GAAP) 15.0% 15.3% 14.2% 12.6% 11.6%
We have presented our Industrial operating profit and operating profit margin excluding gains, non-operating pension costs (pre-tax),
restructuring and other, noncontrolling interests, GE Capital preferred stock dividends, as well as the results of Alstom. We believe that
Industrial operating profit and operating profit margin adjusted for these items are meaningful measures because they increase the
comparability of period-to-period results.
(a) See Industrial Operating Profit and Operating Profit Margin reconciliation above for computation.
(b) See Industrial Operating + Verticals earnings and EPS reconciliation above for computation.
We have presented our measure of Industrial operating profit and Vertical earnings, which is the sum of the Industrial operating profit
used in measuring the operating margins of our industrial businesses and the net earnings of our Verticals businesses. See the
reconciliations for these measures for additional information about the basis for the measures and explanation of why we believe these
individual measures are helpful to management and our investors. We also believe that this measure, which combines an industrial
business measure with the results of our Vertical financial services business provides management and investors with a measure that
is aligned with the way in which we manage these businesses.
We have presented our segment gross margin excluding the results of our fourth quarter 2015 Alstom power and grid acquisition. We
believe that industrial segment gross margin adjusted for the Alstom impacts is a meaningful measure because it increases the
comparability of period-to-period results.
INDUSTRIAL SEGMENT OPERATING PROFIT AND OPERATING PROFIT MARGIN (EXCLUDING ALSTOM)
We have also presented results of our Power, Renewable Energy and Energy Connections & Lighting segments excluding the effects
of the fourth quarter Alstom power and grid acquisition. These measurements included revenues, operating profit and margin excluding
Alstom, the reconciliations for which are included in the segment sections within MD&A. We believe that metrics adjusted for the
Alstom impacts are meaningful measures because they increase the comparability of period-to-period results.
Our Industrial ROTC calculation excludes earnings (losses) of discontinued operations from the numerator because GAAP requires us
to display those earnings (losses) in the Statement of Earnings. Those earnings (losses) from discontinued operations include an
allocation of interest expense either directly attributable or related to discontinued operations. Net investment in discontinued operations
is calculated as assets of discontinued operations less liabilities of discontinued operations, including an allocation of GE Capital debt.
Our calculation of average GE shareowners’ equity may not be directly comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other
companies. We believe that it is a clearer way to measure the ongoing trend in return on total capital for the continuing operations of
our businesses given the extent that discontinued operations have affected our reported results. We believe that this results in a more
relevant measure for management and investors to evaluate performance of our continuing operations, on a consistent basis, and to
evaluate and compare the performance of our continuing operations with the ongoing operations of other businesses and companies.
Definitions indicating how the above-named ratios are calculated using average GE shareowners’ equity, excluding effects of
discontinued operations, can be found in the Other Items and Measures section within the MD&A.
Average GE Capital shareowners’ equity(a) (GAAP) $ 34,382 $ 67,930 $ 85,370 $ 83,358 $ 79,873
Less the effects of the average net
investment in discontinued operations 2,955 28,028 45,589 45,023 41,504
Our Industrial ROTC calculation excludes earnings (losses) of discontinued operations from the numerator because GAAP requires us
to display those earnings (losses) in the Statement of Earnings. Our calculation of average GE Capital shareowners’ equity may not be
directly comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies. We believe that it is a clearer way to measure the ongoing
trend in return on total capital for the continuing operations of our businesses given the extent that discontinued operations have
affected our reported results. We believe that this results in a more relevant measure for management and investors to evaluate
performance of our continuing operations, on a consistent basis, and to evaluate and compare the performance of our continuing
operations with the ongoing operations of other businesses and companies.
Earnings from continuing operations (GAAP) $ 9,494 $ 1,700 $ 9,490 $ 7,881 $ 8,816
Less: GE Capital earnings (loss) from continuing operations (606) (7,718) 1,537 716 1,378
Plus: GE after-tax interest 1,499 1,262 1,026 865 880
Adjusted Industrial return (Non-GAAP) $ 11,599 $ 10,680 $ 8,979 $ 8,030 $ 8,318
Our Industrial ROTC calculation excludes earnings (losses) of discontinued operations from the numerator. We believe that this is a
clearer way to measure the ongoing trend in return on Industrial capital for the continuing operations of the business to the extent that
discontinued operations have affected our reported results. Our Industrial shareowners’ equity used in the denominator is adjusted for
debt, redeemable noncontrolling interests and noncontrolling interests. We believe that these adjustments provide a more meaningful
denominator in measuring the return on our industrial businesses. Industrial ROTC was 15.4% in 2016 versus 16.9% in 2015 and
14.0% in 2014. In 2016, an 8.6% increase in the adjusted Industrial return was combined with a 19.5% increase in the adjusted
Industrial capital. This increase in capital was principally driven by increased debt and effects from Alstom redeemable noncontrolling
interests. Our calculation of the return on Industrial capital may not be directly comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other
companies. We believe that the adjustments described above result in a more relevant measure for management and investors to
evaluate performance of our Industrial continuing operations, on a consistent basis, and to evaluate and compare the performance of
our Industrial continuing operations with the continuing operations of other businesses and companies.
INDUSTRIAL CASH FLOWS FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES (INDUSTRIAL CFOA) AND INDUSTRIAL CFOA
EXCLUDING TAXES RELATED TO BUSINESS SALES AND PRINCIPAL PENSION PLAN FUNDING
GE CASH FLOWS FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES (GE CFOA) EXCLUDING TAXES RELATED TO BUSINESS SALES
AND PRINCIPAL PENSION PLAN FUNDING
We define “Industrial CFOA” as GE’s cash from operating activities (continuing operations) less the amount of dividends received by
GE from GE Capital. This reflects the effects of intercompany transactions, which include, but are not limited to, the following: GE
Capital working capital solutions to optimize GE cash management; GE Capital enabled GE industrial orders; aircraft engines, power
equipment and healthcare equipment manufactured by GE that are installed on GE Capital investments, including leased equipment;
expenses related to parent-subsidiary pension plans; buildings and equipment leased between GE and GE Capital, including sale-
leaseback transactions; information technology (IT) and other services sold to GE Capital by GE; and various investments, loans and
allocations of GE corporate overhead costs.
We believe that investors may find it useful to compare GE’s operating cash flows without the effect of GE Capital dividends, since
these dividends are not representative of the operating cash flows of our industrial businesses and can vary from period to period
based upon the results of the financial services businesses. We also believe that investors may find it useful to compare Industrial
CFOA and GE CFOA excluding the effects of taxes paid related to the sales of the Appliances, Signaling and NBCU LLC businesses
and contributions to our principal pension plans. Management recognizes that these measures may not be comparable to cash flow
results of companies which contain both industrial and financial services businesses, but believes that this comparison is aided by the
provision of additional information about the amounts of dividends paid by our financial services business and the separate presentation
in our financial statements of the GE Capital cash flows. We believe that our measure of Industrial CFOA, and both Industrial CFOA
and GE CFOA excluding such sale-related taxes and pension contributions (representing net sale proceeds associated with the July 1,
2016 sale of GEAM to State Street Corporation) provides management and investors with useful measures to compare the capacity of
our industrial operations to generate operating cash flow with the operating cash flow of other non-financial businesses and companies
and as such provides useful measures to supplement the reported GAAP CFOA measure.
We define free cash flow as GE’s cash from operating activities (continuing operations) less GE additions to property, plant and
equipment and plus GE dispositions of property, plant and equipment, which are included in cash flows from investing activities. We
believe that free cash flow is a useful financial metric to assess our ability to pursue opportunities to enhance our growth. We also
believe that presenting free cash flow plus proceeds from business dispositions provides investors with useful information about the
company’s actual performance against performance targets. Management recognizes that the term free cash flow may be interpreted
differently by other companies and under different circumstances. Although this may have an effect on comparability of absolute
percentage growth from company to company, we believe that these measures are useful in assessing trends of the respective
businesses or companies and may therefore be a useful tool in assessing period-to-period performance trends.
(a) Liquidity includes cash and equivalents and $11.5 billion of high quality investments at December 31, 2016.
We have provided the GE Capital ratio of debt to equity on a basis that reflects the use of liquidity as a reduction of debt. For purposes
of this ratio, we have also adjusted cash and debt balances to include amounts classified as assets and liabilities of businesses held for
sale and discontinued operations. We believe that this is a useful comparison to a GAAP-based ratio of debt to equity because liquidity
balances may be used to reduce debt. The usefulness of this supplemental measure may be limited, however, as the total amount of
liquidity at any point in time may be different than the amount that could practically be applied to reduce outstanding debt. Despite this
potential limitation, we believe that this measure, considered along with the corresponding GAAP measure, provides investors with
additional information that may be more comparable to other financial institutions and businesses.
We use ENI to measure the size of our Capital segment. We believe that this measure is a useful indicator of the capital (debt or equity)
required to fund a business as it adjusts for non-interest bearing current liabilities generated in the normal course of business that do
not require a capital outlay. We also believe that by excluding liquidity, we provide a meaningful measure of assets requiring capital to
fund our Capital segment as a substantial amount of liquidity resulted from debt issuances to pre-fund future debt maturities and will not
be used to fund additional assets. Liquidity consists of cash and equivalents and certain high quality investments. As a general matter,
investments included in liquidity are expected to be highly liquid, giving us the ability to readily convert them to cash. Providing this
measure will help investors measure how we are performing against our previously communicated goal to reduce the size of our
financial services segment.
2017 OPERATING FRAMEWORK INCLUDING 2017 INDUSTRIAL OPERATING + VERTICALS EPS TARGET
1) Non-operating pension cost, which we estimate to be approximately $(0.16) – (0.17) per share.
2) Capital Other continuing earnings (excluding Verticals), which we estimate to be approximately $(0.03) – (0.12) per share.
This amount is affected by, among other things:
• The timing of when, and the amount by which, the Company pays down GE Capital’s outstanding debt; and
• The timing and magnitude of the remaining costs associated with GE Capital’s Exit Plan.
Note: The company cannot provide an equivalent GAAP EPS guidance range without unreasonable effort because of the uncertainty of
the amount and timing of events affecting earnings as we execute the GE Capital Exit Plan. Although we have attempted to estimate
GE Capital’s Other continuing earnings for the purpose of explaining the probable significance of this component, as described under
number 2, this calculation involves a number of unknown variables, resulting in a GAAP range that we believe is too large and variable
to be meaningful.
It is also impractical to provide a reconciliation for our organic revenue, Industrial operating margin expansion and Free Cash Flow plus
Dispositions targets as these involve a number of unknown variables including the effects of future acquisitions, dispositions,
restructuring activities, property plant and equipment purchases and dispositions and currency exchange.