GE splits: GE Aerospace, GE Verona celebrate first NYSE trading day
GE Aerospace and GE Verona celebrated their first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange, marking the official split of General Electric into three companies.
GE Aerospace is set to become Greater Cincinnati’s latest Fortune 500 company on Tuesday as CEO Larry Culp rings the opening bell for the New York Stock Exchange.
Joining Culp in New York will be Scott Strazik, CEO of GE Vernova, the energy business of former parent company General Electric, which will become a standalone business based in Atlanta.
What are Greater Cincinnati’s Fortune 500 companies?
With nearly $32 billion in annual revenues in 2023, GE Aerospace will be the region’s third-largest Fortune 500 company behind Kroger and Procter & Gamble. The region’s other Fortune 500 companies are insurer Western & Southern Financial Group, regional bank Fifth Third and uniform manufacturer Cintas.
What is GE Aerospace?
Long based in suburban Evendale and previously named GE Aviation, GE Aerospace employs 9,000 employees in Greater Cincinnati or Northern Kentucky.
Speaking to employees at the company’s Learning Centre on the Evendale campus, Culp said it easy picking the headquarters.
“Why Cincinnati?” Culp asked a gathering of more than a hundred workers. “There was no decision to make − when you’re home you’re home.”
Tuesday’s corporate split between the former GE subsidiaries marks the final chapter of a years-long winding down of the storied Boston conglomerate. After more than a decade of struggles, GE announced its plan in late 2021 to split itself into three separate companies. Last year, GE spun off its health care business.
“Today marks a historic final step in the multi-year transformation of GE,” Culp said Tuesday in a statement. “Building on a century of learning and carrying forth GE’s legacy of innovation, GE Aerospace moves forward with a strong balance sheet and greater focus to invent the future of flight, lift people up, and bring them home safely.”
What will this mean for Greater Cincinnati?
Locally, the split’s biggest casualty was General Electric’s Global Operations Center at The Banks, a back office facility that aimed to provide support to GE’s various divisions that was scaled back, then shut down as the company broke apart. The office’s remaining 250 workers were moved to Evendale last year.
Looking forward, GE Aerospace announced last month it would beef up its manufacturing capabilities, investing $107 million into Greater Cincinnati plants as part of a larger $650 million infusion into its worldwide manufacturing and supply chain operations.
The Enquirer will update this story.