GE Releases 2012 Annual Report

FAIRFIELD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--GE (NYSE: GE) announced today the release of its 2012 Annual Report, available on the Company’s website at www.ge.com/annualreport. The title and theme of “GE Works” is reflected in GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt’s letter to shareowners, which addresses the Company’s performance, culture, and how GE can thrive in the years ahead.

“About $60 trillion of infrastructure investment is needed by 2030 to support billions of new consumers joining the middle class in the emerging world, and to support developed-market productivity. At $100 billion of revenue with 15% margins, we are the largest and most profitable infrastructure company in the world.”

"Strategy is about making choices, building competitive advantage and planning for the future," writes Immelt. "As we look forward, it is important that investors see the Company through a set of choices we make for the purpose of creating value over time."

Immelt outlines five choices “that drive the future" of GE:

• Remaking GE as an infrastructure leader: "About $60 trillion of infrastructure investment is needed by 2030 to support billions of new consumers joining the middle class in the emerging world, and to support developed-market productivity. At $100 billion of revenue with 15% margins, we are the largest and most profitable infrastructure company in the world.”
• Balanced capital allocation with a focus on dividend growth: "We like GE to have a high dividend yield, which is appealing to the majority of our investors…In total, we plan to return $18 billion to investors this year through dividend and buyback.”
• Investment in organic growth: "We believe that investing in technology and globalization is key to gaining market share. Annually, we invest more than $10 billion to launch new products and build global capability."
• Alignment with customer outcomes: "Our growth is aligned with customer outcomes, and our products improve their productivity…We only win when our customers win."
• Leading the big productivity drivers of the era: Immelt writes that GE is positioned to lead in three key productivity themes: “the shale gas revolution,” the rise of advanced manufacturing technologies, and the power of the Industrial Internet to increase productivity through better analytics.

Immelt closes the letter with a focus on the culture of GE. "A good culture is the only filter that can make size a strength and not a weakness." The key to GE's culture today, he writes, is "Simplification."

“We are building processes that drive speed, accountability and compliance,” writes Immelt. “The decisions we are making today will shape the Company for years to come. GE can execute on a scale few can match. I hope, as an investor, that makes you proud.”

Distribution of printed annual reports and proxy statements begins this week in preparation for GE’s annual shareowners meeting on Wednesday, April 24, 2013, in New Orleans, Louisiana.

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About GE

GE (NYSE: GE) works on things that matter. The best people and the best technologies taking on the toughest challenges. Finding solutions in energy, health and home, transportation and finance. Building, powering, moving and curing the world. Not just imagining. Doing. GE works. For more information, visit the company's website at www.ge.com.

Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements:

This document contains “forward-looking statements” – that is, statements related to future, not past, events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address our expected future business and financial performance and financial condition, and often contain words such as “expect,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “seek,” “see,” or “will.” Forward-looking statements by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain. For us, particular uncertainties that could cause our actual results to be materially different than those expressed in our forward-looking statements include: current economic and financial conditions, including volatility in interest and exchange rates, commodity and equity prices and the value of financial assets; potential market disruptions or other impacts arising in the United States or Europe from developments in sovereign debt situations; the impact of conditions in the financial and credit markets on the availability and cost of General Electric Capital Corporation’s (GECC) funding and on our ability to reduce GECC’s asset levels as planned; the impact of conditions in the housing market and unemployment rates on the level of commercial and consumer credit defaults; changes in Japanese consumer behavior that may affect our estimates of liability for excess interest refund claims (GE Money Japan); pending and future mortgage securitization claims and litigation in connection with WMC, which may affect our estimates of liability, including possible loss estimates; our ability to maintain our current credit rating and the impact on our funding costs and competitive position if we do not do so; the adequacy of our cash flow and earnings and other conditions which may affect our ability to pay our quarterly dividend at the planned level or to repurchase shares at planned levels; GECC’s ability to pay dividends to GE at the planned level; our ability to convert pre-order commitments into orders; the level of demand and financial performance of the major industries we serve, including, without limitation, air and rail transportation, energy generation, real estate and healthcare; the impact of regulation and regulatory, investigative and legal proceedings and legal compliance risks, including the impact of financial services regulation; our capital allocation plans, as such plans may change and affect planned share repurchases and strategic actions, including acquisitions, joint ventures and dispositions; our success in completing announced transactions and integrating acquired businesses; the impact of potential information technology or data security breaches; and numerous other matters of national, regional and global scale, including those of a political, economic, business and competitive nature. These uncertainties may cause our actual future results to be materially different than those expressed in our forward-looking statements. We do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements.