Recent News: Immelt and Shareholders, Cost-Cutting, GE Real Estate, and GE Energy Financial Services

Immelt: GE will cut another $1 billion in 'difficult times'
Less than two weeks after General Electric shocked investors by reporting a 6% loss in first-quarter profits, CEO Jeff Immelt said Wednesday that he sees "even more difficult times ahead" for the economy. But at the company's annual shareholder meeting here he said U.S. capital markets have improved since the end of the first quarter...

GE hikes cost-cutting goal to $3 billion
General Electric Co chief Jeffrey Immelt said on Wednesday U.S. capital markets have improved since the end of the first quarter but the overall U.S. economic picture is unchanged, and the company has raised its 2008 cost-cutting goal by $1 billion...

Immelt works to reassure shareholders at GE's annual meeting
General Electric Co.'s annual meetings are typically upbeat affairs as executives showcase the company's successes to satisfied shareholders of one of the world's most diversified and successful companies. But after GE chief executive Jeff Immelt was lambasted earlier this month for failing to hit first-quarter goals and triggering a selloff that wiped out more than $46 billion of GE's market capitalization, Wednesday's annual meeting was essentially a mea culpa to investors and analysts alike...

GE Buys $2.5B Loan Book From Capmark Europe
With capital markets worldwide reaching for firmer footing, GE Real Estate has struck its second Pan-European mega-deal in five months for a commercial property loan book. The £1.22-billion [$2.51 billion USD] acquisition of senior and whole loans is secured by 39 performing retail and office properties, predominately in Germany...

Immelt Targets More Cuts at GE Annual Meeting (GE)
Jeff Immelt will get to explain the recent General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) earnings SNAFU all over again today. Frankly, all we really care about at 247WallSt.com is what lies ahead rather than rehashing what we already saw. We probably won't be hanging on for every single comment this morning, but there was at least some addressing of the current climate and some remedies it seeks. For starters, the company is now targeting for $3 Billion in cost cuts rather than $2 Billion. The company also said it will more frequently review its entire portfolio, which translates to the possibilities that the company can have more spin-offs or divestitures down the road...

No credit crunch in energy, GE unit says
After investing $104 million for the acquisition of oil and natural gas reserves in the Gulf Coast, officials from GE's Energy Financial Services unit in Stamford said they're still looking to do business. With fewer financing options available because of the ever-tightening credit markets, John Schaeffer, managing director and head of the oil and gas unit at the GE division thinks his company is one of the most reliable partners for oil and gas companies in the high-demand energy sector. "There are fewer financing options out there since the subprime crisis," Schaeffer said. "The prices paid for assets have come back to a more rational level. We're now more competitive than we were when there was more inexpensive money out there."...