GE Bets on Energy, Water, New Economies for Future
Date: 27-Jan-06
Country: SPAIN
At a business lunch in Madrid, Immelt confirmed that GE, the world's largest company by market value, should boost revenues by more than 10 percent to about $165 billion this year and generate cash flow of more than $25 billion.
"The economic backdrop is fairly robust and bright so there is a lot to be optimistic about. But with growth comes increasing volatility. We have to be on our toes," he said. "There is fear and opportunity at every turn."
Many of those opportunities came in new businesses and new markets around the world.
Immelt said revenue from GE's "ecomagination" project -- which includes developing clean gas and coal and creating plastics that are easier to recycle -- should double to $20 billion a year while investments would rise to $2 billion.
Desalination, or turning salt water into fresh water, could also become a $5 billion to 10 billion business for GE in the next 5 years.
"About 40 percent of the world is going to have a shortage of water in the next 10-20 years," he said. "(The desalination business) is just growing dramatically as time goes on."
Immelt said he wanted to double GE's revenues in China to $10 billion in 2005-08, having already jumped to $5 billion from less than $1 billion since 2001.
"China is one of the factors of our time," he said. "Most of our future economic history will be written in the developing world".
