GE's Health Business Is Ready for Its Close-Up
The unit has been taken for granted, but it has a lot to offer investors as a stand-alone.
Vital signs are good.
Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
General Electric Co.’s breakup gives its health-care unit a chance to shine.
The industrial company on Tuesday said it would spin off the division as part of a broader restructuring that will also include the divestiture of its stake in the Baker Hughes energy business and a further shrinking of GE Capital. The health-care unit, which makes MRI machines and cell-therapy tools, is one of the better businesses at GE. It generates steady cash flow, its revenue is growing, and it has seen meaningful margin improvement — thanks in part to CEO John Flannery, who was brought in to fix the division in 2014 after it had hit a lull.