GE’s Crown Jewel Shines, Confuses in Paris
The company’s aviation unit scored some legitimate order wins, but an attempt at transparency only raised more questions.
We’ll always have Paris.
Credit: Brooke Sutherland/Bloomberg
Aviation has long been considered General Electric Co.’s crown jewel, but with the company’s free cash flow turning negative this year, “crown jewel” is a relative term and the business is coming under increasing scrutiny. Some of it is deserved; some isn’t.
GE Aviation CEO David Joyce seemed to be on a mission at this year’s Paris Air Show to prove his division’s worth. He arrived armed with more financial detail than GE had ever previously provided for the business, came out swinging against suggestions he was sacrificing price to score revenue wins, and announced some notable orders. And yet questions remain about what the business’s true financial profile would be if it was reconstituted as a stand-alone company and cut off from the tax and working-capital benefits that have historically come with being part of the mother ship. That matters, because many investors continue to value GE based on the sum of its parts, the argument being that the aviation unit alone can offset trouble spots in GE’s power, renewables and long-term care insurance operations and support a higher valuation for the stock.